Mark Rylance may star as the 24-foot tall Big Friendly Giant, but he will attend the film’s premiere in “human bean” form.
Other “human beans” – that is, “human beings” in BFG-speak – set to attend the “gloriumptious” premiere in London’s Leicester Square include director Steven Spielberg and the film’s stars, Penelope Wilton, Rebecca Hall, Adam Godley and child actress Ruby Barnhill.
The BFG team at Cannes (Thibault Camus/AP)
Steven’s version of Roald Dahl’s 1982 novel sees Mark as the kind-hearted, big-eared, word-mangling BFG, who kidnaps young Sophie (Ruby) from an orphanage and takes her back to his home in Giant Country.
Unfortunately, Giant Country is home to much bigger giants including Fleshlumpeater and Meatdripper, who pick on the poor BFG and feast on humans.
Sophie and the BFG team up on an unlikely adventure which takes them to Dream Country, and even to Buckingham Palace, where they meet the Queen (Penelope) and try to enlist her help against the “cannybully” and “murderful” giants.
(BFG trailer screenshot/Disney)
The BFG has previously been made into an animated movie, but Steven’s version uses live action and performance-capture technology to create the fantasy world.
The movie is Steven and Mark’s second collaboration, after they worked together on 2015′s Bridge Of Spies.
A firm friendship developed, with Mark, 56, telling the Radio Times that working with 69-year-old Steven for the first time was “like meeting an old friend”.
Mark Rylance and Steven Spielberg (Thibault Camus/AP/PA)
Steven said: “Yes, that’s how I felt, too. I felt like we had been working together all my life. It felt like I’d known him all my life.”
He added: “We became pals, which I don’t often do. You know, we’re all gypsies and we move into other worlds, but I didn’t want Mark to leave my world at all.”
The BFG will be released in UK cinemas on July 22.
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