Beloved Roald Dahl book "The BFG" will get the big-screen treatment
Remember what 鈥淏FG鈥� stands for in Roald Dahl鈥檚 classic kids鈥� story? (It鈥檚 Big Friendly Giant.) If you do, then you may be excited by the announcement that Dreamworks has picked up the rights to the story of the only friendly giant in Dahl鈥檚 world.
The movie studio made the announcement today that it will be turning the beloved children鈥檚 book into a movie with Melissa Mathison, who wrote the screenplay for 1982鈥檚 鈥�E.T.,鈥� adapting the new cinematic version of the tale. Dahl鈥檚 1982 book tells the story of Sophie, believed to be named for his granddaughter, and her encounter with the BFG, the one giant who doesn鈥檛 eat people and who spends his time hearing dreams through his massive ears and distributing good dreams to children.
鈥淭he BFG鈥� was previously turned into an animated movie in 1989, with British actress Amanda Root 鈥� star of the 1995 movie version of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" 鈥� voicing main character Sophie.
The children鈥檚 book will be the next in a long line of movies based on Dahl鈥檚 kids books, including two separate versions of 鈥�Charlie and the Chocolate Factory鈥� starring Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp respectively, a 1990 version of 鈥淭he Witches鈥� starring Anjelica Huston, and a 2009 Oscar-nominated stop-motion adaptation of 鈥�Fantastic Mr. Fox.鈥�
Molly Driscoll is a Monitor correspondent.
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