The BFG needs careful handling, Mr Spielberg

Roald Dahl's classic is to be filmed by the team behind ET. Can the adaptation possibly live up to the magic of the original?

News broke over the weekend that Steven Spielberg is set to direct a film of The BFG. It'll be the story's second adaptation; in 1989 it was made into an animated TV film. This one will be live action, say reports; the script will be by ET scriptwriter Melissa Mathison, and it's due to come out in 2016.

I'm in two minds about the news. The BFG is such a huge part of my childhood reading; of the masses and acres of books I roared through, it stands out as one of the few titles of which I remember whole chunks, even today, almost verbatim. The thought of frobscottle still enchants me delumptious, with its downwards-whizzing bubbles, and its taste of raspberries and vanilla. "'Whenever I is feeling a bit scrotty,' the BFG said, 'a few gollops of frobscottle is always making me hopscotchy again.'"

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