Tayyaba
Asteroid City director Wes Anderson made his way to the Lido di Venezia this morning with The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, his second picture of 2023 and his most recent Roald Dahl adaption after 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. There, he talks about the controversial edits of Roald Dahl’s works and gives his opinion on the actor’s strike among other things.
What has Wes Anderson said about the edits of Roald Dahl’s text post-humously?
The well-known director was at the location in support of The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, the 40-minute feature that will debut this evening at Venice and will not participate in the competition. At the official press conference, he was questioned concerning the current efforts from Roald Dahl’s publishers to revise and remove offensive content from his writing. In response, he stated, “I’m probably the worst person to ask about this because if you ask me if Renoir should be allowed to touch up one of his pictures, I would say no. It’s done.” He then talks a bit more about the subject before concluding with: “And certainly no one who is not an author should be modifying somebody’s book. He’s dead.”
“I don’t even want the artist to modify their work. I understand the motivation for it, but I’m in the school where when the piece of work is done we participate in it. We know it. So I think when it’s done, it’s done.”
Wes Anderson
SAG-AFTRA Strike: Wes Anderson’s Opinion
Anderson’s film stars a talented ensemble cast consisting of Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, Rupert Friend, and Richard Ayoade. Despite this impressive A-list cast, Anderson attended the morning presser solo since the movie is a Netflix production and didn’t meet the requirements for the SAG interim agreement, which allows unionized actors to attend the festival and promote the project. When he was asked about how he feels about the double-strike going on, the filmmaker commented: “I can’t say I have answers or real suggestions. An equitable deal has got to be reached for anybody to go forward. People are suffering.”
