Steven Spielberg on The BFG: 'It's the most ambitious motion capture of a character ever'

Disney's adaptation of classic children's novel The BFG has got some pretty big expectations to fulfil. One thing it apparently won't disappoint on according to the director is its visuals.

Talking in an interview with Empire, director Steven Spielberg discussed the scale of the titular character, portrayed by Oscar-winner Mark Rylance, and not just in terms of his size but championing all that the special effects team accomplished with his look on the silver screen too.

"It's a big job. There are thousands of effects shots. I think it's the most ambitious motion capture of a character that any film has ever done," the 69-year-old filmmaker claimed. That's right, Spielberg reckons the visualisation of Roald Dahl's well-loved protagonist goes even further than that what we've seen in past films. That's including Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy, Zoe Saldana's Neytiri from Avatar and Andy Serkis' acclaimed turns as Caesar in Planet Of The Apes and Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings saga.

Looking at the footage of Disney's The BFG however, it seems quite obvious why the award-winning director thinks that. Even those who weren't aware of the cast list before watching the trailer could hasten a guess that Bridge Of Spies' star Rylance was playing the giant simply due to the brilliant likeness they seem to have achieved. Technically, it's also doing things that haven't been done very often in film before, with producer Frank Marshall adding: "It's two cameras that put BFG and Sophie together in the same shot. It was a big leap forward in putting CGI characters in the real world."

Based on the children's book, The BFG tells the tale of young orphaned girl Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), who gets whisked up and taken to a magical land by the Big Friendly Giant, when she spots him sneaking about in London during the wee hours of the morning. Luckily for Sophie, despite his intimidating appearance, her new acquaintance actually turns out to be a kind-hearted soul who has been rejected by his fellow giants because he refuses to eat children like they do.

As the pair become unlikely friends, the more violent giants become suspicious that the BFG is harbouring Sophie, forcing them to combine their individual skills to thwart the gang of bullies.

While the story of The BFG is familiar to many, it will be interesting to see how late screenwriter Melissa Mathison (ET the Extra-Terrestrial) interpreted the beloved story and made it unique to this picture. It's safe to say however that the aspect of the film that most people are excited about are the visuals given how advanced CGI technologies have become since the 1989 adaptation, and if the trailer and Spielberg's recent gushing is anything to go by, it's going to be simply stunning.

The eagerly-anticipated picture stomps down in US cinemas on 1 July 2016 and will reach UK screens on the 22 July.

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