Steven Spielberg and the BFG.

Insert Big Freaking Gun joke here.

Anyway, apparently ol' Steve is attached to direct an adaption of the book by Roald Dahl. Live-action, apparently. Not sure what to think about this. At least he's moved away from the semi-creepy Tintin motion capture. Might be amazing if they manage to get Queen Elizabeth to play herself in it.

edited 27th Apr '14 6:01:51 PM by Tuckerscreator

Sounds like it could be a return to roots for Spielberg if done properly. I just hope they don't water the content down like the Moral Guardians will inevitably demand they do.

I liked how Tintin looked

Anyway, I have no clue how they would make this work, but I'm intrigued. Especially considering that this was probably my favorite Roald Dahl book when I was a kid.

Tintin was awesome!

Tintin was alright, but the motion-capture didn't feel necessary to me. Seeing as it's based on a comic, I would have preferred a hand-drawn film or at least a more exaggerated CG art style. Here's my review of the film.

Wait, they're officially not continuing the Tintin movie?

Goddammit.

I don't see anything saying they've canceled the sequel.

I'm pretty sure they established that they'd work on the next Tintin movie once Peter Jackson comes back from Middle-Earth if you catch my drift.

^^ Oh. From the way you said he was moving away from it, I thought there was some info about him not doing it any more.

I wonder how faithful they'll be to the book. The previous Dahl adaptations were mostly faithful with a few critical exceptions. And will Spielberg keep whizzpopping?

They'll probably find some way to play Infant Immortality straight.

Spielberg is pretty much immune to Executive Meddling now and Tintin got away with some fairly bloody death, so I don't think it'd be a problem. The foundation of the whole plot is that giants are eating kids. Cut that and there's no conflict.

What the sodding fresh fuck is this? Hasn't Speilberg crapped on enough kid's childhoods with that Tintin thing? What's next? Fricking Asterix the Gaul starring Jay Leno?

To the best of my recollection there have already been two (perhaps more) live-action Asterix movie, at least one of which included Gerard Depardieu as Obelix.

As to the BFG, it's been a very long time since I read the story, and I don't remember it clearly at all. I think that I at least somewhat liked it. The movie, in the meanwhile, could go either way—there's far too little information with which to guess just yet, I feel.

[edit]Edited to correct Gerard Depardieu's name. ^^; [/edit]

edited 28th Apr '14 8:45:05 PM by ArsThaumaturgis

4 Asterix live-action movies, actually (the latest being God Save Britannia).

@Tam: Hey hey hey, I read Tintin as a kid and I like the film just fine. My childhood is very much untrodden on. Hmph.

I wondered for a bit if Wes Anderson should directed this too, but then remembered that Fantastic Mr. Fox is about adults while The BFG is about a child. And Spielberg can tell stories about children pretty well. That said, a stop-motion BFG would have looked pretty cool, with them agile giants, snozzcumbers, and dreams.

I'm just genuinely wondering how they'll manage to pull this off well in live action. I'm sure it's possible, but I wouldn't exactly think it'd be the first choice for something as utterly fantastic as this.

The Asterix films were French. The star was a Frenchman. Tintin's from Belgium and Spielberg couldn't even get that right.

Likewise. I went to go see it because I was a big fan of Tintin, and left the theatre with it as one of my favorite movies. It's very distinct from the comics Tintin (mostly, or at least in part, due to changes in Tintin's overall personality with drive the plot in certain ways) but it's still a great adventure story with entertaining characters and phenomenal visuals.

edited 29th Apr '14 1:12:49 AM by KnownUnknown

Now, how will Daddy Issues figure into all of this?

Same here. Grew up on Tintin like most french-speaking kids, and that movie was AWESOME. I honestly could not have asked for a better Tintin film. Sure they took some liberty, but I can't complain. For one, having Tintin have some fallibility, like that moment of self-doubt after the big chase scene, actually serves to make him more interesting.

Sophie is an orphan but the BFG becomes a sort of father figure to her, so perhaps that's how.

Hopefully they do as relatively good a job as the producers of Matilda did in reconstructing the art work of Quentin Blake. It'd be a hard time seeing the BFG as anything other than the gangly, big-eared, big-nosed guy with whispy hair.

Anyone seen the animated movie based on the book? I haven't, but here's the trailer.