‘Matilda’ The Musical Opens London Film Festival

A childhood classic now turned into a film musical musical version “Matilda” opened the London Film Festival with line up of actors such as Emma Thompson and Lashana Lynch.

The film, called “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”, is an adaptation of the London West End and Broadway stage show also based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 book about a young girl who realises her special abilities and uses her powers in a vengeful way to deal with her cruel parents and headmistress Miss Trunchbull.

Commenting on her performance Lynch said “This is a really good opportunity for me to flex a muscle I haven’t in a long time.I sang before I acted and singing and music is really important to me. It moves me every single time and I’m just grateful that this ‘Matilda’ is a musical.”

Oscar winner Thompson plays Miss Trunchbull in the film, directed by Matthew Warchus, who also developed and directed the theatre show, described the musical as “the most physically challenging thing I’ve ever done because it was so physical.”

Thompson continued,”But we had such fun with the children and we would get on set and have these huge hug fests and Matthew would keep screaming ‘Will you please stop hugging the children? They’re supposed to hate you’ and I said ‘But they all think I’m Nanny McPhee,” she added, referencing a past character she played.

This year’s festival has over 160 feature films and screen talks with actress Jennifer Lawrence and director Alejandro G. Iñárritu among a line-up of big names looking back on their careers.

The programme includes red carpet events for Oscar winning-director Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light”, Timothee Chalamet’s portrayal of a cannibal on the run in “Bones and All” and Daniel Craig’s second outing as detective Benoit Blanc in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, which will close the festival on Oct. 16.