Steven Spielberg’s film of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel The BFG has cast its lead.
Deadline reports that the great Mark Rylance will bring the Big Friendly Giant to life.
Spielberg stated that “As I witnessed on stage, Mark Rylance is a transformational actor. 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.”
The site also notes that the Dahl family is thrilled with the choice, as his grandson and the estate’s managing director Luke Kelly said ““We are ecstatic at this choice. Mark is incredibly talented, one of the great British actors working today. I’ve had the privilege of seeing Mark perform, and the thought of watching him transform into ‘the only nice and jumbly Giant in Giant Country’ is, as The BFG himself might say, absolutely phizz-whizzing.”
Rylance is a giant (pun intended) of British theatre, perhaps best known for his incendiary performance in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem. He’s also starred in Intimacy, The Other Boleyn Girl and Anonymous.
The BFG is released 1 July 2016. You can buy The BFG in paperback for £3.85 at Amazon.co.uk and you can keep up with the latest genre news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
