Hooray! It's a good nostalgia news day! Steven Spielberg has announced that he's going to direct an adaption of Roald Dahl’s novel The BFG.
It won't be out until 2016, but the film'll be written by Melissa Mathison, who gave us the script for E.T., which is definitely a good start in our book.
In case you’ve forgotten, The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is a friendly giant from Giant Country who collects dreams and blows them through children's windows while they sleep at night. Unfortunately, not all giants are as kindly as him and mostly like to eat ‘human beans’ in their spare time. Enter his new friend, Sophie. Together the two team up with the Queen of England to defeat the man-eating giants.
The best bit about The BFG was all the weird and wonderful words, from ‘snozzcumbers’ (12ft cucumbers with warts all over them) and ‘whizpopping’ (farting) to ‘frobscottle’ (a fizzy drink that causes whizpopping).
Here’s some other things we'd forgotten about the Roald Dahl books.
The weird jobs of the insects in James And The Giant Peach
James lives out his days in the peach pit in Central Park, but his pals end up with some highly questionable jobs for insects. The Centipede becomes vice-president of a boot company, The Grasshopper gets a place in the New York Symphony Orchestra, The Ladybug marries the head of the NYFD (the mind boggles at the practicalities of this) and The Glowworm cuts New York’s electric bill in half by lighting the Statue of Liberty.
The grisly reality of Mr Twit’s diet
Regardless of the gruesome way the Twits captured their food (super-gluing birds to trees so they could eventually be turned into bird pie), even worse was the leftovers Mr Twit held in his beard: sardines, Stilton and cornflakes were all present. But handy whenever he wanted a snack.
The Vermicious Knids in Charlie And The Great Glass Elevator
Charlie’s visit to the Chocolate Factory is pretty well known (thanks to the ace film from the 70s! Not so much thanks to Tim Burton film from 2005!). Weirder though was what happened after the elevator crashed through the glass ceiling at the end of the book. The sequel saw Charlie and Willie Wonka hanging out at a space hotel orbiting the earth and fighting off evil shape-shifting aliens called Vermicious Knids. Obviously.
P.S. this is what original Charlie looks like now.
The Great Mouse Plot Of 1924
An amazing memory from Roald’s memoir Boy when his friend Thwaites put a dead mouse in the gobstopper jar at the sweetshop to punish the evil owner Mrs Pratchett. The result? A caning.
The horrifying end of The Witches
Remember that truly terrifying film adaption of The Witches with Anjelica Huston where they all take off their wigs and turn into warty old monsters? We’d forgotten that the end of the book is even worse. The Boy stays as a mouse, which means that he’ll actually only live another nine years. But he doesn’t mind because he doesn’t want to outlive his grandmother. Depressing or what?
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.