Steven Spielberg will add to his repertoire of family favourites when he adapts Roald Dahl’s The BFG for the big screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the legendary director will team up with his E.T scribe, Melissa Mathison for Dreamworks.

Steven SpielbergSteven Spielberg at Cannes Film Festival

The book, which like most of Dahl’s books was illustrated by Quentin Blake, follows a little girl called Sophia who is taken by a giant to his home in Giant Country. Sophie, who was named after Dahl’s own granddaughter, is becomes friends with the giant, who is 24 feet tall, and whose primary occupation is to distribute good dreams to children. 

Spielberg issued a statement saying, "The BFG has enchanted families and their children for more than three decades. We are honored that the Roald Dahl estate has entrusted us with this classic story.”

DreamWorks acquired the rights to the  the book – first released back in 1982 - in 2011 with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall set to produce. The announcement of Spielberg as director comes after various directors were rumoured to be involed in the project, like John Maddenand Chris Columbus.

Spielberg is official, and will kick things off in 2015 with a view to releasing the film in 2016. It adds to his repertoire of family films, like E.T, Hook and The Adventures of Tin Tin. THR suggest that he might fit another smaller movie inbetween now then, with an unnamed Cold War thriller written by Matt Charman that has Tom Hanks attached said to be the favourite.