Steven Spielberg Wants To Get Gene Wilder Out of Retirement For An Upcoming Film

Hollywood icon Gene Wilder is being courted to return to acting for a forthcoming Steven Spielberg adaptation, Ain't It Cool News reports.

Rumor has it Wilder is being pursued to voice the titular BFG (Big Friendly Giant), marking a return to that author's world for Wilder, who famously played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

The site suggests, though, that nobody's 100% sure that's what's going on -- and that meetings either have already taken place or are being worked out now. They speculate that he could also be a fit for Ready Player One, in which the character of James Halliday has some decidedly Wonka-esque characteristics.

Wilder hasn't starred in a feature film since 1999 and hasn't acted on film since a short guest stint on Will and Grace more than a decade ago. He's expressed little interest in returning to the spotlight, but has hinted that there are a few people -- such as Mel Brooks, with whom Wilder collaborated on Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein -- could convince him to return.

Since his retirement, Wilder has produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007),The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008) and Something to Remember You By (2013). His version of Wonka is omnipresent in online memes.