Melissa Mathison: A Tribute (2016) Online

Credited cast:
	Melissa Mathison	-	Herself
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
	Ruby Barnhill	-	Herself
	Rick Carter	-	Himself
	Kathleen Kennedy	-	Herself
	Kristie Macosko Krieger	-	Herself
	Frank Marshall	-	Himself
	Mark Rylance	-	Himself
	Steven Spielberg	-	Himself
	Robert Stromberg	-	Himself

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) was the final produced screenplay written by Melissa Mathison prior to her passing away during late 2015.

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) is dedicated to Melissa Mathison as a tribute. The film's closing credits dedication reads: "FOR OUR MELISSA".

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) marked the reunion of director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison, following their celebrated collaboration on E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982).

According to The New Yorker magazine, the diagnosis of the film's late screenwriter Melissa Mathison's neuroendocrine cancer, was " . . . an illness that was only diagnosed as production of the movie neared its end."

Of the scenes that the film's late screenwriter Melissa Mathison saw, director Steven Spielberg has said: "I don't normally invite people to the cutting room, but I was so excited about the results that we were getting that I asked Melissa to come up and see some of this footage. She didn't get to see the whole movie, but she saw about seven complete sequences that were representative of the entire film-the entire opening in the orphanage, she saw all of dream country before the effects were in, she saw at least half of the queen's breakfast, and she saw some small interstitial scenes."

The producers of BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) needed a screenwriter to spin Roald Dahl's book into a full-length screenplay, someone with a special skill and instinct for children's stories, and for that they turned to friend and colleague Melissa Mathison. Producer Kathleen Kennedy said: "Melissa was the first and only writer we thought of. Her gifts as a writer and her particular sensibility were essential to bringing Dahl's visionary tale to life."

To do research for BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016), screenwriter Melissa Mathison visited Gipsy House, source novelist Roald Dahl's home in Buckinghamshire, England, on numerous occasions, where she was given access to the author's library and study. There, she explored the life and works of this extraordinary writer so as to chart her own path into the wild, funny and rich landscape of his imagination, which provided her with a foundation for capturing the spirit of Dahl's adventure, further honing its sense of place and capturing the relationship at its heart in ways that would both build upon and honor his 1982 book "The BFG."

Actor Mark Rylance was immediately inspired by Melissa Mathison's screenplay for BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016), and said: "Melissa added some twists and turns and made [source novelist Roald] Dahl's original story much more dramatic, in a way that gives you more of a chance to see the friendship develop. He is just misunderstood. The BFG and Sophie are both isolated beings, and they find a friend who understands them, maybe better than they do, and those are the best kind of friends. That's part of the great love and friendship they have for each other."

When reading Roald Dahl's source novel to BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016), screenwriter Melissa Mathison was drawn to the bond between the characters of Sophie and the BFG. Mathison said: "It is a very sweet relationship, but they actually start off a little combative and are suspicious of one another and even have their own little power struggles. But from the moment they have a plan and move forward as partners, there's just so much love between them. It's a wonderful little love story."

Of utmost importance to the filmmakers of BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) was remaining faithful to source novelist's Roald Dahl's voice, keeping consistent with the author's rhythm, language, and interaction between his characters, all of which were uniquely his. Screenwriter Melissa Mathison said: "I tried to use Dahl's dialogue verbatim as much as possible. We didn't want to tamper with the tone."

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) was the third and final cinema movie collaboration of director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison. The first was E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982), and the second was the second segment, entitled "Kick the Can", of Unheimliche Schattenlichter (1983), which she was a co-writer on, and billed as Josh Rogan.

First the producers needed a screenwriter to spin Roald Dahl's delightfully simple book into a full-length screenplay-someone with a special skill and instinct for children's stories, and for that they turned to friend and colleague Melissa Mathison. "Melissa was the first and only writer we thought of," says Kathleen Kennedy. "Her gifts as a writer and her particular sensibility were essential to bringing Dahl's visionary tale to life."

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016), features a giant (the BFG) which at 24-feet-tall, is the smallest of the giants in Giant Country in the film, his brothers range in size from 39-feet to 52-feet. But the BFG is also the kindest. He speaks Gobblefunk, reads Charles Dickens' "Nicholas Nickleby" by Roald Dahl's Chickens and catches dreams which he shares with children as they sleep. Screenwriter Melissa Mathison said: "Even though he detests Snozzcumber, he eats it, almost as if contrition for the fact that his fellow giants eat children. The BFG is a vegetable-eating, peaceful giant".

Just as the filmmakers of BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) anticipated, screenwriter Melissa Mathison took a personal approach to the material, maintaining the relationship between the scrappy orphan and the word-jumbly giant as they took on their big adventure from Roald Dahl's source novel. Mathison said: "My imagination was invested in the two of them. Everything needed to be centered on their relationship." Director Steven Spielberg said: "Melissa took Dahl's book and did the most extraordinary but faithful translation, with a magic only Melissa possesses."

Once the film's screenplay script for BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) was completed, screenwriter Melissa Mathison would remain involved with the film throughout principal photography. Director Steven Spielberg occasionally needs to make changes to the script while filming and wants the writer's voice there to bring the characters alive. Spielberg said: "Melissa was there on the E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982) set every day, and every day on The BFG. So I've been very fortunate to bookend our relationship with two stories that came from her heart." Spielberg continues: "I have not had a chance to mourn Melissa, because she's been so vibrant and real to me, in the cutting room, on the scoring stage, in the dubbing room - she's just always been there with me, so because of that, it's going to be hard when I have to let The BFG go, because then I have to let Melissa go, too."

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) marked the first produced cinema movie screenplay written by Melissa Mathison in almost twenty years. Mathison's last filmed script had been for Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997) around nineteen years earlier. In between, Mathison is credited for the character of E.T. [See: E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982)] in the video-game Universal Studios Theme Parks Adventure (2001).

Director Steven Spielberg said that screenwriter Melissa Mathison's earliest drafts for "BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016) were "experiential". Spielberg told The New Yorker: "It was very poetic, and the poetry of Melissa's writing, and the poetry of Roald Dahl's words, were kind of propelled forward just by Sophie becoming less afraid of BFG and BFG becoming more respectful of Sophie, but there wasn't really a plot engine."

BFG: Big Friendly Giant (2016)'s screenwriter Melissa Mathison, who wrote E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982) for Steven Spielberg, also wrote uncredited the first draft screenplay for Spielberg's family / childrens' film Die Abenteuer von Tim und Struppi - Das Geheimnis der Einhorn (2011).

Roald Dahl's "The BFG" (The Big Friendly Giant) was first published in 1982 and has been enchanting readers of all ages ever since. Dahl's books, which also include "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "James and the Giant Peach", and "Matilda," are currently available in fifty-eight languages and have sold over two hundred million copies worldwide. Originally created as a bedtime story, "The BFG" (1982) was Dahl's own favorite of all his stories. Director Steven Spielberg said: "It was very important for us to be loyal to the language and the great writer Melissa Mathison, who also wrote E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982), wrote The BFG.

According to The New Yorker magazine: "During principal photography, in Vancouver, in the spring of 2015, Melissa Mathison was on the set every day, handing cards to the director with the day's scene on it - a practice carried over from E.T. - Der Außerirdische (1982) that encouraged Steven Spielberg to detach from the script in its entirety. "Melissa was so inspirational for me on 'E.T.' because she had this technique that I'd never used before, and I've only done it with Melissa," Spielberg says. "She said, 'Why don't you leave your script at home and just focus on the day's work?' So she wrote out the day's work on three-by-five cards, and printed the cards and gave me a copy. 'If you really need to see the script, the continuity person is sitting just over there.' I always carry the script with me all the time, and she weaned me of holding my script like Linus's security blanket. When we did 'The BFG,' I looked at Melissa and she said, 'Steve, are you ready to get back to the cards?' I went, 'Really, Melissa?' 'Yes, I think we need to keep a continuity between the last time we worked and this time,' so I went right to the cards"."