The Telegraph has an excellent overview of all things Dahl as Hollywood discovers or re-discovers of his work. Read the whole thing.No other British writer has combined imagination, wit and black humour to entertain his child readers over the heads and behind the back of disapproving adults.
Some cool facts from the article that you may not know about him include:
* he invented the word gremlins
* he adapted two Ian Fleming books for the cinema: You Only Live Twice for the film starring Sean Connery, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke
* he was born in Wales in 1916 and went on to study at Repton. He took a job with Shell but when the Second World War broke out he joined the RAF and became a fighter pilot.
Screen treatments in the works:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Tim Burton with Johnny Depp as Wonka
The Fantastic Mr Fox - Wes Anderson, who made The Royal Tennenbaums
The B.F.G – the Big Friendly Giant – by the producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshal, with a script by Ed Solomon, who wrote Men in Black.
The Twits - John Cleese has written the script
Robert Altman, is adapting some of Dahl's macabre adult stories into a six-part television series

The Official Roald Dahl Website features the art work of Quentin Blake. Lots of good stuff there.