American filmmaker Wes Anderson has shared his thoughts on Netflix housing his new movie. Following the success of his 2009 adaption of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson is set to release another Roald Dahl movie adaptation later in the year via Netflix. First, however, audiences are readying themselves for the arrival of Asteroid City next week.
Anderson’s upcoming Netflix movie, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, based on the Welsh author’s short story collection from 1977, will enjoy a star-studded cast, including Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ben Kingsley.
In a new interview with IndieWire, Anderson revealed that the movie is only 37 minutes long. Anderson lamented that he had wanted to take on the short story adaption for some years, but “by the time I was ready to do it”, the rights to Dahl’s stories had been acquired by Netflix.
“Suddenly, in essence, there was nowhere else you could do it since they own it,” Anderson said, suggesting he collaborated with Netflix only out of necessity, not passion. “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.”
Anderson admitted that, while he “had only a good experience with Netflix”, he’s “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.”
Streaming platforms have been becoming major players in the release of feature films and with success through movies such as All Quiet on the Western Front and Pinocchio that won’t be changing any time soon.
Asteroid City hits the screens on June 21st. Watch the full trailer below.
