Steven Spielberg is continuing to movie forward on his big screen adaptation of The BFG, the great novel by Roald Dahl (which happens to be my favorite book as a young person). He has already cast his “Big Friendly Giant” in three-time Tony Award winner Mark Rylance, but he is still in need of the lead of his movie. Or, more accurate, he was is need.
Spielberg has chosen newcomer Ruby Barnhill to play Sophie, the girl who gets swept up by the titular BFG and taken on an incredible journey through Giant Country. This will be the ten-year old’s first feature film role, so it is obvious I cannot really gage how well she will tackle the part. I will have to trust in Spielberg here, as I usually do, with this decision and hope she is terrific. For those really wanting to see what she can do, Barnhill can be seen in the upcoming BBC children’s drama “Four O’Clock Club“.
The film is set to start production in early 2015, with a July 1, 2016 release date in place. I find it very interesting that Dreamworks will be producing the film with Disney distributing it. Can they work together after so much competition? Regardless of that business stuff, this is Spielberg movie, and he has a pretty good track record.
