Gene Wilder’s last feature was 1991’s Another You — in which he starred alongside Richard Pryor — and apart from a few cameos he turned away from acting and picked up the pen, writing a memoir and two novels.Now, according to Ain’t It Cool, none other than Steven Spielberg is trying to coax the 82-year-old actor out of retirement. It is unknown which role Spielberg has in mind for Wilder, but of his two projects that are in the works, it isn’t much of stretch to imagine Wilder in either: first, there’s an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG, then there’s another adaptation, of Ernest Cline’s sci-fi novel Ready Player One.
In an interview with Time Out in 2013, Wilder stated, “It’s not that I wouldn’t act again. I’d say, ‘Give me the script. If it’s something wonderful, I’ll do it.’ But I don’t get anything like that.” Let’s all hope Spielberg has that script.
Watch a captivating Wilder that other famous Roald Dahl adaptation: