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Steven Spielberg will direct a film version of Roald Dahl’s The BFG for DreamWorks, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
DreamWorks acquired the rights to film the book in 2011, with Spielberg now set to start filming in 2015. The final film will be released in 2016.
Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall will produce the film and Melissa Mathison, who penned the script for E.T. (which was also directed by Speilberg), wrote the screenplay, said the news report.
Luke Kelly, Roald Dahl’s grandson, said he was "delighted" with the news, and pointed out that the release date, 2016, is the year of Roald Dahl's centenary.
The BFG, originally published in the UK in 1982 by Jonathan Cape, tells the story of Sophie, a young girl who befriends a giant who blows nice dreams into the ears of sleeping children.
Last year, it was voted the nation’s third favourite children’s book in a Booktrust poll, behind Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling (Bloomsbury) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic).
The BFG is now published in the UK by Puffin and has sold 593,004 copies across all editions, according to Neilsen BookScan.