The Big Not-So-Friendly Author
Friday, April 8, 2016 at 10:34AM The full trailer for The BFG has dropped, and we’ve already looked at the teaser here which left us tingling with magic anticipation. Now that we’ve got more footage, including that of the big man himself we can feel as cosy and content Sophie under a big blanket reading a book that we’re in good hands. Spielberg was infamously interested in directing the first Harry Potter film, and perhaps this is the next best thing for him which has that splash of family friendly fantasy mixed with classic E.T. kids-on-an-adventure feel. That moment when the BFG is hiding in the shadows, obscuring the street light with his hand already feels classic.
It’s encouraging to see that Spielberg is taking the content seriously, and hasn’t resorted to making The BFG as a character a comedy act, which would have been the easy route for a kid’s film. Rylance seems to bring the soulfulness that makes the source material so rich. What is yet to be seen is whether Spielberg embraces the sneaky and dark side of notoriously prickly Roald Dahl’s writing which so many filmmakers have struggled with in the past. Dahls balance of the sinister and the joyously fantastic is what makes his legacy so beloved. Spielberg has a propensity for the earnest and sickly sweet side of cinema, so this may be a shiner version of the tale. Other filmmakers have had ranging success in capturing his style.
Previous Roald Dahl on screen after the jump…
Dahl began his relationship with the big screen writing screenplays for two Ian Fleming adaptations, writing You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. His Bond outing is perhaps the franchises most cartoonish - but so much of the spoofed aspects of Bond came from this film: bald villain with a cat stroking a cat, hidden volcano lair, and dropping people into piranha pits. Sinister, but fantastical. Right in his wheelhouse.
The first time he himself was adapted was with the classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl disowned the film, not least because they had turned it from Charlie to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. They had missed Dahl’s mark – it was supposed to be Charlie’s journey. Dahl was long deceased by the time Burton tried his hand, and corrected the title. Burton certainly aimed to embrace the Dahl essence but was lost against his post-2000 insistence on visually screaming at his audience. God bless Missy Pyle for providing a sliver of genius.
It wasn’t until 1990, the year of his death, that another of his fantasy novels was turned into a live action film with The Witches. Most notorious for the perfectly cast Anjelica Houston as the Grand High Witch to which modern day critics regard as “Yaaaaassss qwwweeen” and is a gif favourite for good reason. The film was well received with many citing it capturing well the true spirit of Dahls writing. The ending was changed from the books bleak as hell, but touching ending to something more widely palatable. Still not quite up to the game of embracing Dahls wicked side.
Mid 90’s Matilda also strayed greatly from the books turning the story of a genius girl who could push herself to do something incredible, into a very family friendly film following a borderline young Jean Grey who sends objects whizzing around the room. The film was still very well received and did contain some sinister side of the source material, particular with the Trunchbull. It wasn’t until the mega smash hit recent stage musical version by Tim Minchin that brought back some of the extremely depressing elements of the story. Dahl may have just loved it like everyone else is.
Stop motion has been the chosen medium twice to translate Dahl to the big screen. Starting with James and the Giant Peach in 1996 which stop motion genius’ Henry Selick’s follow up to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which balances live action segments with stop motion. The stop motion segments were particularly well received, with the jagged and rough visual style seeming perfect for the macabre aspects of the tale. Even Dahl’s widow gave the film a stamp of approval, despite Dahl never allowing an adaptation to happen in his lifetime.
The more recent stop motion Dahl film was Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr Fox which is undoubtedly first and foremost a Wes Anderson film before a sincere adaptation of the original novel. This aside, the film is one of the most inventive, original, hilarious and well-constructed films of the millennium. American accents, dapper suits and Anderson’s left of centre wit are nowhere in the source material, and perhaps it was more of a film for adults than kids, but it was be fascinating to know what Dahl thought of it. Even if he probably would have hated it.
There has also been Danny, The Champion of the World, an animated The BFG, a recent version of Esio Trot but didn’t manage to pierce the publics ongoing consciousness.
What adaptation most captured the Dahl spirit for you? Are you optimistic for the new The BFG? What’s your favourite? What would you like to see adapted? Sound off in the comments so his big ears can hear you.
Reader Comments (11)
The BFG was my favourite book as a kid, the 1989 animated film was my favourite film, and Spielberg was my favourite director, so I was really looking forward to a big slice of nostalgia for to turn 30 with this summer... but I'm really disappointed with how this looks.
The issue I have is why the giants needed to be CGI motion-captured? Didn't the Lord Of The Rings movies prove that prosthetic makeup and real actors could create creatures that are even more indelible than computers? The dwarves and the orcs of the original trilogy. When those movies first came out, everyone was praising the practical effects and saying how much better they look than computer effects. It seems that no one has taken that lessons to heart.
I loooooved The Twits as a little kid, but I can't imagine that one working as a film, it's awfully slight and goonish - a movie version would be way over the top.
My other favorites as a kid were The Witches and The BFG - I adore the Huston film and think they made perfectly fine choices in softening it a bit for the screen; it's still EXTREMELY disturbing at times, which is how it oughta be. And I have high hopes for The BFG - I think Spielberg has the dark wit of Dahl in him, it's shown up in places over the years. (Think of Tom Cruise chasing eyeballs down a hallway in Minority Report.)
MARK RYLANCE, BITCH!
The Jack: If you were to do THIS film primarily practically? The best angle would probably be something like the old-school Godzilla movies. So: You film Mark Rylance (and, later, the other actors playing giants) walking around a model version of whatever environment the current scene is set in with an appropriately scaled object in his hand or in his coat pocket or wherever and you edit in shots and dialogue of the kid every once in a while when needed.
ANJELICA HUSTON
Not Angelica Houston.
...yeah, the CGI in that trailer does NOT look good, which is a pity because Mark Rylance is absolutely PERFECT casting as the BFG. But perhaps it looks better on a big screen.
I've got no problem with Rylance as The BFG. In fact, I'd say his casting would have made a good argument not to CGI the character at all. Rylance's face would have nailed the look and personality of the BFG without it.
I think the film could easily have been done "practically". Obviously some kind of effects would have had to be used, but I would have used LOTR as a template. They managed to make the size of the Hobbits and dwarves compared to the other characters seem extremely believable. Obviously the giants in The BFG are a lot bigger, but it's the same principal.
Now I'm just afraid it looks like the bathroom troll in Harry Potter, or whatever that thing was at the end of Batman V Superman.
I thought Spielberg would have a bit more imagination than this.
I loved both "The Witches" and "Jason and the Giant Peach" best. Extra points to the Huston version for using live action. That's a scary but wonderful film.
As for BFG - So Spielberg is borrowing from Alfonso Cuaron -which is only fair since Cuaron did Harry Potter better than Spielberg ever would have done it.
LadyEdith: Speaking of Harry Potter, I'm actually working on a script version of a different spin on that world. Something Grim This Way Comes, a fusion with Cartoon Network show (both WB properties, in other words) The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Big reason why? WB's going to be nearing the end of it's rope with DC tentpole films VERY soon (I'm thinking anything past 2017 is very likely to die silently), and having a second, wildly different, Harry Potter franchise concept will tempt them to no end.
Volvagia - Good thinking and I sincerely wish you good luck with that venture. Harry Potter had so much texture to the characters, and plots that kept things to a human scale. I love that series so much more than Star Wars, Hunger Games or any Comic Book series.
Have you seen the Jonathan Norrell adaptation ?
"We are revolting children!"