&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/93301?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Roald+Dahl%27s+BFG+catches+a+big-screen+dream%3AArticle%3A1639204&amp;ch=Film&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Film%2CCulture%2CRoald+Dahl%2CFilm+adaptations+%28Books%29%2CAnimation+%28Film+genre%29&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful%2CFilm+Reviews&amp;c6=Ben+Child&amp;c7=11-Sep-27&amp;c8=1639204&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=News&amp;c11=Film&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Film+blog&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FFilm%2Fblog%2FFilm+blog&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;DreamWorks and ET writer, Melissa Mathison, set to adapt the author&#039;s much-loved tale, making it into a live action film&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The BFG, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/author/roald-dahl&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Roald Dahl&lt;/a&gt;&#039;s fantastical tale of a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/unclassified/9780224064521/the-bfg&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Big Friendly Giant&lt;/a&gt; who befriends a young orphan girl, is to get a live action update, courtesy of ET writer Melissa Mathison and studio DreamWorks, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/dreamworks-picks-roald-dahl-movie-plows-ahead-39-clues-31284&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;reports The Wrap&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The project marks the second time Dahl&#039;s story has been adapted for film following the 1989 made-for-TV version from the late-lamented British animation studio Cosgrove Hall, which featured David Jason as the voice of the lofty hero. With Indiana Jones producer Frank Marshall on board, and the backing of the powerful DreamWorks studio, the new version looks likely to be a bigger budget affair. No director has yet been announced for the project.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A large number of Dahl&#039;s children&#039;s stories have been adapted by Hollywood, with hugely varying results. Both &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/107336/charlie.and.the.chocolate.factory&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Tim Burton&#039;s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory&lt;/a&gt; (from 2004) and the 1971 Mel Stuart version, renamed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, were popular with critics, though Dahl himself &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067992/trivia?tr=tr0732093&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;detested the latter&lt;/a&gt;. Nicolas Roeg&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100944/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;The Witches&lt;/a&gt;, from 1990, and Henry Selick&#039;s stop-motion animated &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ax6ZrcUx4&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;James and the Giant Peach&lt;/a&gt; were also popular with reviewers, but failed to take off at the box office. Danny DeVito&#039;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ujc71mev9qc&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Matilda&lt;/a&gt;, from 1996, was both a critical smash and a financial success, though it received criticism in some quarters for Americanising Dahl&#039;s story.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One of the most successful of all Dahl adaptations is the most recent, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2igjYFojUo&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Fantastic Mr Fox&lt;/a&gt;, which, while it diverted from the author&#039;s original story, proved perfect material for Wes Anderson&#039;s shift into stop-motion territory in 2009. There is also a 1989 made-for-TV adaptation of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097152/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Danny the Champion of the World&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;DreamWorks, the studio founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994, has had a tough year at the box office, following the failure of wannabe blockbusters such as &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cowboys_and_aliens/&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Cowboys and Aliens&lt;/a&gt; to achieve traction. The Wrap reports that it is to scale back plans for new productions, despite the unexpected recent success of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/sep/05/the-help-worthy-oscar?INTCMP=SRCH&quot; title=&quot;&quot;&gt;Oscars hopeful The Help&lt;/a&gt; in the US.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;related&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/roalddahl&quot;&gt;Roald Dahl&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/filmadaptations&quot;&gt;Film adaptations&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/animation&quot;&gt;Animation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/benchild&quot;&gt;Ben Child&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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