Taika Waititi is one of the busiest men in Hollywood right now. He’s in post-production on Next Goal Wins. He’s gearing up for Thor: Love And Thunder. He’s officially directing a new Star Wars movie, at some point. Plus he’s directing two animated Roald Dahl projects for Netflix. All that, and somehow he’s also found time to sit and do a spot of reading. The prolific writer-director has today launched a web series which sees him sit down to read Dahl’s beloved children’s novel James And The Giant Peach with some ludicrously famous faces, all in the name of charity.
Across 10 episodes, Taika ‘& Friends’ will be reading through the story to raise money for Partners In Health – and the first two instalments are already up on YouTube. The cast here isn’t just impressive – it’s downright ludicrous. We’re talking Chris Hemsworth, Ryan Reynolds, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Meryl Actual Streep. And that’s not all – he also has Tessa Thompson, Cara Delevingne, Beanie Feldstein, Olivia Wilde, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Eddie Redmayne, Kumail Nanjiani, Ruth Wilson, Lupita Nyong’o, Josh Gad, Liam Hemsworth, Nick Kroll, Billy Porter, and young Jojo Rabbit stars Roman Griffin Davis and Archie Yates.
Watch Episode 1 in full here:
And Episode 2 in full here:
Future instalments are set to arrive on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1pm, so keep an eye out for Episode 3 shortly. Seeing as Taika has assembled plenty of his Thor: Ragnarok cast members here, is there any chance he’s getting Meryl involved in Love And Thunder? We can but dream. We’ll see more of Taika in the world of Roald Dahl when he presents his Netflix projects – one an animated take on Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, and the other an animation involving the Oompa-Loompas.