LONDON • Stuck at home with the kids? Actors Meryl Streep, Benedict Cumberbatch and Cate Blanchett may be able to help.
Oscar-winning New Zealand film-maker Taika Waititi (above) 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 (2019) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017), 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 also among the cast.
In trailers released on Monday, Thor actor Chris Hemsworth boasts of his "loveliness" to his sceptical brother, The Hunger Games (2012 to 2015) star Liam Hemsworth, 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, 44, who described himself as "an adult child myself", has read the book many times to his two 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 these difficult times.
"This wacky tale is about resilience in children, triumph over adversity and dealing with a sense of isolation, which couldn't be more relevant today," he said.
REUTERS
