He may be off re-teaming with Tom Hanks for an untitled Cold War thriller, but another Steven Spielberg project is also in the works. As he often does, he’s also working on a feature in the opposite spectrum: a family-friendly tentpole adaptation of Roald Dahl‘s The BFG. Coming from E.T. scribe Melissa Mathison, it’ll find the director back in fantasy territory as it follows a young girl, Sophie, who guides the Queen of England and the BFG, a big, friendly giant, to stop Bloodbottlers, the big and unfriendly sort, from eating children.
We now have our first casting of the project as Mark Rylance, a Tony Award-winning actor and player in the director’s aforementioned thriller, has been set as the big, friendly giant, according to DreamWorks. “As I witnessed on stage, Mark Rylance is a transformational actor,” says Spielberg, who is currently working with the actor on his thriller. ”I am excited and thrilled that Mark will be making this journey with us to Giant Country. Everything about his career so far is about making the courageous choice and I’m honored he has chosen ‘The BFG’ as his next big screen performance.” As we await Spielberg’s next films, watch his 80-minute talk about his previous feature, Lincoln, with Doris Kearns Goodwin and Tony Kushner from early last year:
Spielberg’s Cold War thriller opens on October 16th, 2015 and The BFG opens on July 1st, 2016.
Are you looking forward to Spielberg’s next features?