Walt Disney Studios announced today that they will co-produce and co-finance Steven Spielberg’s upcoming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s inimitable classic The BFG, the first collaboration between Disney and Ol’ Beardy. You’d think they would have done SOMETHING over all these years, but you’d be wrong, wrong and ugly.
The BFG (if you never had a childhood, and only played Doom, The BFG stands for The Big Friendly Giant. Go find the book and read the book) is set for a summer 2016 release, which is crazy because I must have missed when he officially committed to this. I thought this might be another one of those Spielberg dream projects that never was, but it’s moving right along, and with a great cast to boot. Veteran stage actor Mark Rylance (The Other Boleyn Girl) landed the plum title role of The BFG, newcomer Ruby Barnhill will play the role of Sophie, the girl who befriends the BFG, and the rest of the giants include Bill Hader, Daniel Bacon (Eight Below), Jonathan Holmes, Michael David Adamthwaite (Wikipedia says he plays Reggie the Raptorex on Dinosaur Train, for all my fellow parents of infant children out there), Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), Chris Gibbs, Olafur Olaffson (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Paul Moniz De Sa (Fringe), and Adam Godley (Son of Rambow…wait, how is THIS guy not the BFG? Those ears are top notch!). The ones I know, I love. A lot of voice actors too- the giants will be fully motion-captured, I’m assuming? This should be fun.
Now, what I want to know is, can Spielberg use the same mo-cap from Tin-Tin to emulate Quentin Blake’s incredible drawings? The BFG is so synonymous with Quentin Blake’s art to me. Hell, Roald Dahl in general is synonymous with Quentin Blake. Also, please keep some of the danger of the book. Dear Lord, the things those giants do to children. The wonderful 1990 film The Witches did a great job of adapting the whimsy and the horror from Dahl’s book. KIDS WANT ELEMENTS OF DANGER.
And while we’re making requests, hey, maybe try a cinematographer other than Janusz Kaminski? For once? I can barely see his movies anymore through the glare.
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