Wes Anderson’s ‘The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar’ is 37 Minutes

Alright, so we can scratch off Wes Anderson’s “The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar” as a feature-length film. It’s only 37 minutes long! Anderson confirmed the runtime in an interview with IndieWire’s Eric Kohn:

Suddenly, in essence, there was nowhere else you could do it since they own it. But beyond it, because it’s a 37-minute movie, [Netflix] was the perfect place to do it because it’s not really a movie. You know they used to do these BBC things called “Play for Today” directed by people like Steven Frears and John Schlesinger and Alan Clarke. They were one hour programs or even less. I kind of envisioned something like that.

Anderson goes on to compare ‘ Henry Sugar’ to his short film “Hotel Chevalier,” made for Apple in 2007.

Yes. It’s not quite the choice between a full-fledged cinema release and a streaming release because you would never distribute a short film like that and distribute it in cinemas. They’d have to sell cheaper tickets or do a double feature. I will say is that while I had only a good experience with Netflix, but I’m very happy to be putting “Asteroid City” in cinemas. Focus and Universal are doing it the real cinema way. That’s the way I really want my movies to be shown.

“The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar,” which is based on four short stories penned by author Roald Dahl, was shot on a stage in 16mm. There’s also stop motion animation. It does sound very different to previous Andersons.

Anderson’s adaptation stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel. This troupe of actors are said to appear in all of the stories being told, but in different roles.