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Oscar-winning New Zealand filmmaker Taika
Waititi has lined up some of his Hollywood friends by videolink
from their living rooms for a coronavirus lockdown charity
reading of Roald Dahl's classic "James and the Giant Peach".
Waititi, director of "Jojo Rabbit" and "Thor: Ragnarok", reads
the British author's 1961 children's novel while his friends
chime in, voicing characters and having fun.
Cynthia Erivo, Beanie Feldstein, Josh Gad, Mindy Kaling, Gordon
Ramsay, Eddie Redmayne, Olivia Wilde, Ruth Wilson and Archie
Yates are among the cast.
In trailers released on Monday, Chris Hemsworth boasts of his
"loveliness" to his sceptical brother, "The Hunger Games" star
Liam, in what is billed as their first performance together.
Streep's silly voices are among the highlights, earning a laugh
from Cumberbatch.
The novel will be read in 10 instalments, with the first two
available from Monday on the Roald Dahl YouTube channel. Funds
raised will go to Partners In Health, a charity for maternal
health in Sierra Leone.
Waititi described himself as "an adult child myself", who has
read the book many times to his daughters.
It is about an orphan boy's adventures in a surreal magical
world inside a giant peach, and Waititi says it is the perfect
story for our locked down times.
"This wacky, wonderful tale is about resilience in children,
triumph over adversity and dealing with a sense of isolation
which couldn't been more relevant today," he said.
(Reporting by Peter Graff; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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