Wes Anderson was approached to turn his best film into a musical

❘ Published: 2023-09-04T20:48:26

Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Wes Anderson recently revealed that one of his best films — The Grand Budapest Hotel — was tapped to be turned into a musical.

Wes Anderson is one of the most famous directors of all time, best known for his unique style that includes a lot of pastel colors, a similar trope of actors, and absurd sequences.

Though he’s made a ton of unique films, one of his most famous, and beloved, movies is definitely 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The movie follows concierge Gustave H. and his lobby boy Zero as they’re thrusted into a murder investigation after one of Gustave’s older lovers dies and leaves him an expensive painting. And it seems like one Anderson fan was very moved by the film as they asked the director to turn it into a musical.

Anderson gave semi blessing to film-turned-musical

The director recently sat down with Vogue during the Venice Film Festival where he was screening his first film in 16 years. The movie — The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar — is a short film adaptation of a story of the same name by the British children’s author Roald Dahl and will be able to stream through Netflix.

While chatting with Vogue, Anderson was asked if any of his work had been tapped to be put on stage and he revealed that he was approached by someone who wanted to stage The Grand Budapest Hotel.

“Somebody had an idea for The Grand Budapest Hotel that had some songs, and they recorded some demoed versions of them,” Anderson explained, “They put it together but I don’t know exactly what happened. I expect they take it to a group of investors and either they invest or they don’t. I think it must have fizzled out. I don’t actually remember.”

Anderson went on to say that, though he never gave his official blessing for the musical to be put on, he told the person who recorded the music for it to “let [him] know what happens next and [he would say] whether [he was] with [them] or not.”

The director also revealed that he wasn’t opposed to the idea of directing a play in the future, but was a bit wary of the idea just because “when you do a play, you know the opening date before you start rehearsing. With a movie, you have time to keep polishing. With a play, you’ve got to be ready. I find that a bit frightening.”

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar premieres on Netflix on September 20, 2023. You can check out other TV/movies hubs below: