Roald Dahl: From Books To Film

Roald Dahl: From Books to Film Several of his best selling novels have been transformed into cinema’s most iconic films. Welcome to Watchmojo.com, and today we will be taking a look at beloved children’s author Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl was born in Liandaff, Wales and lived from 1916 to 1990. Long before becoming an author, he was a young rebellious prankster that clashed with his authority figures. One of his pranks resulted in his expulsion from his hometown’s Cathedral school. As a result, his parents sent him off to several boarding schools in England, where he became the subject of abuse. This eventually inspired him to pen his darker children’s stories, such as, “Matilda” and “The Witches”. Both narratives portrayed adults as villains, and were told from a child’s point of view. Much of the fantastical elements of Dahl’s stories came from the mythical Norwegian tales his mother used to tell him before bed. Similarly, Dahl also wrote the story “The BFG”, which told the tale of a friendly giant who lived apart from the other giants as they enjoyed eating children. What’s interesting is that Dahl himself achieved giant-like proportions, as he measured an impressive 6 foot 6 inches tall. Some of Dahl’s stories were so dark in tone that they have been the subject to censorship, such as his masterpiece, “James and The Giant Peach”; a tale inspired by the loss of his father and was brought to the screen by Tim Burton in 1996. Fortunately, Dahl was also inspired by the lighter moments that he experienced in his youth, such as when Cadbury sent boxes of chocolates to his school to be tested by the students. This caused Dahl to fantasize about inventing a new chocolate bar that could get the attention of Mr. Cadbury himself. His flight of fancy became the inspiration for one of his most beloved stories of all time, “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory”, A tale that has been told twice on the big screen. The first version “Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory” had Dahl’s direct involvement, but an angered Dahl parted from the project as the studio altered many of the elements of his story to suit their commercial interests. One such change was to change the name in the title from Charlie to Wily Wonka, as during the Vietnam War Charlie was a nickname for a Viet Cong. In a Fascinating move, Tim Burton again sought to bring Dahl’s vision to the big screen by directing the 2005 remake, which portrayed Dahl’s original source material even more closely then studios had allowed decades earlier. Roald Dahl had a unique life that stretched beyond producing children’s stories. As an adult he served as a wing commander in the British Air Force and as an agent of MI-6, the British Foreign Intelligence Service. These experiences in espionage and war helped him write more mature themes for the various screenplay adaptations of novels by Ian Fleming, including James Bond’s “You Only Live Twice”. However, his love of flight and fantasy merged with the release of 1968’s “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. Over his lifetime, many of his short story collections have been adapted for television. His “Tales of the Unexpected” anthology became a television series, and his more mature stories, which ventured far from children’s tales became episodes on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”. However, his writings for Playboy magazine have yet to be optioned for television or film. Since his death, Roald Dahl's beloved collection of stories have become incredibly enticing to film studios seeking to capitalize on their appeal. Wes Anderson’s 2009’s “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” has been considered a special event, as Dahl's widow rarely grant permission to adapt Dahl’s stories to the big screen. Filmmakers must meet her rigorous standards, as she continues to diligently preserve the integrity of Dahl’s original creative vision.