The new Steven Spielberg movie, The BFG, meshes his considerable storytelling skills with those of the great Roald Dahl. Who will prevail in this sensibility-off? Will it be Spielberg’s and E.T. writer Melissa Mathison sense of wonder or Dahl’s mischief and the macabre? Or will they gel perfectly into an adventure for all ages? Have a look at the film’s first trailer for some clues.
Dahl's jolly whizzpopper, voiced by Spielberg's Bridge Of Spies’ alumnus Mark Rylance, is an benevolent soul with an eager sense of smell, a shortage of grey matter and a tendency to keep himself to himself. Easier said than done when you’re 24-foot tall, though. His fellow Giant Country dwellers, Bloodbottler (Bill Hader) and Fleshlumpeater (Jemaine Clement), are much scarier and twice as big and aren’t inclined to make life any easier for him.
The teaser – with echoes of Pan’s orphanage opening – majors on the Big Friendly Giant's first meeting with our heroine, young Sophie (Ruby Barnhill). This supersized meet-cute will lead them both back to Giant Country and adventures that may or may not lead to another giant grinding her bones to make his bread. But probably won’t.
“It’s a story about friendship,” says the director, who promises to adhere to the scary, as well as jolly aspects of the book. “It was very, very brave of [Dahl] to introduce that combination of darkness and light, and being able to do scary, but also be redemptive at the same time and teach a lesson, an enduring lesson, to everyone. It was one of the things that attracted me to want to direct this Dahl book."
We’ve had Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Tim Burton’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and now Spielberg’s addition to the Dahl canon. Fingers crossed for Roland Emmerich’s Giant Peach movie.
The BFG will trample noisily into – or onto – your local cinema on July 22, 2016.