Activity including Southbank exhibition, new books and The BFG adaptation ready to mark centenary year.
The Roald Dahl Literary Estate is getting ready to mark the centenary year in 2016 with 12 months worth of ‘gloriumptious’ treats.
Beginning in January 2016, Roald Dahl 100 is a year-long celebration of the world’s number one storyteller.
Working with licensing agent DRi, licensees will begin rolling out a completely new look across Roald Dahl licensing, concentrating on three core titles – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and The BFG.
Three new style guides have been developed, further strengthening the iconic imagery of Quentin Blake, and adding new colour palettes, placements, icons and other assets to invigorate the licensing programme.
John Collins, brand marketing director, told The Source: “The year will be packed with celebratory events, more giant than James’ peach, more enormous than a Crocodile and more marvellous than George’s medicine!”
Consumer marketing activity will begin with an exhibition – The Wondercrump World of Roald Dahl – which will display rare archive material. It will run at London’s Southbank Centre from February to July, before transferring to Cardiff (the city of Roald Dahl’s birth) from August.
In addition, Roald Dahl is a key theme of the Southbank’s Imagine Children’s Festival, with inspired events running for two weeks in February.
A new title – The Great Mouse Plot – is one of the World Book Day titles in March, while the Hay Literary Festival will have a strong Roald Dahl theme through the children’s activities in May.
Re-jacketed Roald Dahl paperbacks from Penguin Random House will hit shelves in March, while there will also be a new book from Oxford University Press – The Roald Dahl Dictionary.
The BBC will be a key partner in the centenary year, featuring Roald Dahl as a centrepiece to the children’s element of its year-long Get Reading season.
With the hotly tipped movie adaptation of The BFG hitting cinemas in the summer, Roald’s birthday on September 13 will be marked with the biggest celebrations for the author ever seen. This will include schools’ parties and retail events, while Cardiff will be transformed into ‘The City of the Unexpected’.
West End stage shows for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda will continue, while the year will culminate with a new Christmas TV highlight – the adaptation of Revolting Rhymes by Magic Light Pictures.
Illustrations (c) Quentin Blake
