Oscar-winning director, Taika Waititi is hosting a celebrity reading of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach! The reading will be streamed on the Roald Dahl YouTube channel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12 p.m CST, and aid in the fight against COVID-19. Funds will be donated to Partners In Health, a nonprofit created by Roald Dahl’s daughter Ophelia Dahl, whose goal includes fighting COVID-19 and supporting public health systems in the most vulnerable parts of the world. They have agreed to a match up to $1 million in donations!
James and the Giant Peach is the classic 1961 story of James, who drops magic crystals by a peach tree and strange things start happening. The peach at the very tip of the tree starts growing, and growing, and growing…until it’s as big as a house! When James crawls inside, he meets a houseful of oversized friends—Grasshopper, Centipede, Ladybug, and more. With a snip of the stem, the peach starts rolling away, and the adventure begins!
The entire book will be read in 10 installments, with readers including Ryan Reynolds, Cate Blanchett, Gordon Ramsay, Eddie Redmayne, Mindy Kaling, Lupita Nyong’o, Chris and Liam Hemsworth, Sarah Paulson, and Cara Delevingne.
Ophelia says: “My dad instilled in us as kids the notion that imagination will spark a chain reaction of possibilities — we can dream endlessly about ideas and make them real… We’re so grateful to Taika Waititi and the Roald Dahl Story Company for pulling together this extraordinary initiative and amazing array of talent. It will undoubtedly help in the fight against the long-standing health inequities we see in many parts of the world.”
Buy your copy of James and the Giant Peach so you can read along!
Full List of Celebrity Readers:
- Utkarsh Ambudkar
- Cate Blanchett
- Jamie Cullum
- Benedict Cumberbatch
- Roman Griffin Davis
- Cara Delevingne
- Cynthia Erivo
- Beanie Feldstein
- Josh Gad
- Chris Hemsworth
- Liam Hemsworth
- Mindy Kaling
- Nick Kroll
- Kumail Nanjiani
- Lupita Nyong’o
- Sarah Paulson
- Billy Porter
- Gordon Ramsay
- Eddie Redmayne
- Ryan Reynolds
- Ben Schwartz
- Meryl Streep
- Tessa Thompson
- Olivia Wilde
- Ruth Wilson
- Archie Yates
