The Roald Dahl story called BFG, which Dreamworks has licensed for a feature film, does not stand for “big fucking gun” or even “big farting giant.” Instead it stands for “Big Friendly Giant” and is the story of an old man several stories tall who collects good dreams and distributes them to sleeping children. No weird subtext there at all, but he does fart.
The classic early 80s Dahl story has once been adapted into an animation, and is now on track to be a live-action film written by Melissa Mathison (E.T., Kundin, Indian in the Cupboard). It also has the producers of Benjamin Button on board.
If you’re unfamiliar the story it is sort of a Peter Pan type deal, in which a young girl is whisked into the hidden world of giants, all of which are hideous evil troll-like creatures save for the large-eared old man she befriends. The man makes his living with the aforementioned dream collection/distribution, and because of his refusal to eat humans lives off a diet of disgusting food and drink, the later of which makes him rather gaseous (to the point that he can fly). There’s even a song about it…
Seems so up Dreamworks Animation’s alley that I’m surprised the character hasn’t already cameo’d in a Shrek movie. That said, it’s not the animation department that has optioned this, so I can’t say exactly what form this will end up taking. The last Dahl adaptation was Fantastic Mr. Fox, but I wouldn’t count on getting one of the coolest kids films ever as a result of this project.
This all supposedly comes at a time when Dreamworks is rearranging its priorities and getting its shit straight post-Cowboys & Aliens, but even though this year hasn’t been particularly special for the company, they have had The Help hit huge, and still have War Horse yet to go. I’m not worried for them.
Any chewers in whose childhood the BFG loomed large? What do you think of the project?
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