Willy Wonka Prequel with young wonka in the works!

[Ben]

Hmmmmm…

[Daniel]

On set photos:




Always nice to see Jim Carter!

[Daniel]

Description of what was shown:

Warner Bros. revealed the first look at the prequel film Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet. We are introduced to a young and poor Willy Wonka who lives with this young girl played by Calah Lane, a new original character who acts like a pseudo-sister for the aspiring candy maker. Willy is seen traveling to exotic jungles, perfecting the art of making chocolate from cacao beans. The young man has a dream of owning a shop to sell his own chocolate via his original recipes, but the distribution of sweets in the industrial town he lives in is controlled by a “chocolate cartel,” which is really just a group of greedy businessmen. The instantly recognizable melody of “Pure Imagination” from 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is used in the footage.

Wonka cannot fulfill his dreams of selling chocolate if he can’t get passed the chocolate cartel in order to set up a shop. He decides to get extremely creative in pursuing his dreams, distributing his magical candy to the people of the town and building a name for himself the old-fashioned way. When the cartel comes to stop him, he gives them a piece of his chocolate and it sends them floating in the air, which gets the attention of the townspeople. Keegan-Michael Key enters the scene as a comical policeman who tries to stop Wonka’s hijinks for what looks to be the rest of the film. The footage ends with Hugh Grant being introduced as a short oompa loompa stuck in a glass jar. He is orange and has the same green hairdo and white outfit as in the original film.

Willy accuses this oompa loompa of spying on him but the short companion tries to explain the situation through song. He takes out and blows on a flute, then tells an annoyed Willy, “Once we start we have to finish the song.” Directed by Paul King of the Paddington series, Wonka flaunts a whimsical tone and sweeps audiences away with a gleeful spirit. It fully plays into the charm of author Roald Dahl’s original children’s book. Timothée Chalamet’s interpretation of a young Willy Wonka is rebellious, a bit blunt in the vein of Gene Wilder’s famous performance, and more importantly, purely magical. We see him fly across town by holding a large collection of colorful balloons and fully embrace himself in multiple musical performances. Wonka, like Paul King’s past films, seems to be an ideal blend of cinematic fun for older and younger audiences alike.

Loving the nods to the original.

[Ben]

Someone who was there who knows how much I love the original says I’m going to love this. I remain skeptical, but I like King and hope he’s not going to let us down.

[Daniel]

Some teases:

Chalamet returned to the stage for an extended look at Paul King’s Wonka which producer Heyman also introduced. For Chalamet, “It was a dream come true. I grew up on the Gene Wilder movie. It’s really how Willy became Wonka.” For Heyman, “there is not an ounce of cynicism” in the film which hits theaters for the holidays in December. CineEurope was also treated to an exclusive scene featuring Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa.

[gaastra]

Part 2 in the works.

https://www.reddit.com/r/boxoffice/comm ... g_wonka_2/