Steven Spielberg Reunites with 'E.T.' Writer for 'The BFG'

Keeping track of Steven Spielberg's potential projects has become a full-time job with the director adding new ones every few days. To name just a few, he's circling a Dalton Trumbo-penned Montezuma film, a West Side Story remake, the delayed Robopocalypse, and only recently he added The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara and a Cold War thriller with Tom Hanks. And yet he's still not finished, as THR reports he'll direct an adaptation of Ronald Dahl's children's book, The BFG.

Spielberg's frequent producing partners, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, have been developing the live-action film since 2011, based on a script by E.T. screenwriter Melissa Mathison. So this would put Spielberg in familiar company all around, and the material sounds like something that would have worked well in Amblin's glory days. The story follows a mischievous little girl named Sophie who becomes friends with The BGF (Big Friendly Giant), the only benevolent giant in the world and not a literal man-eater like the others.

The plan is for Spielberg to begin filming early next year, which could leave him time to fit in a smaller project. That would presumably leave out Robopocalypse, Montezuma, and the Hanks film which could take a lot of pre and post time.