About Wonka – Film

Wonka Film

Wonka is a 2023 musical fantasy film directed by Paul King, who co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Farnaby based on a story by King. It tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, featuring his early days as a chocolatier. It stars Timothée Chalamet as the title character, with an ensemble cast including Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Olivia Colman and Hugh Grant. It is the third live-action film based on Dahl’s novel, following Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).

Development began when Warner Bros. Pictures reacquired the rights to the character in October 2016 and announced that the film would be an origin story. While it tells a standalone story with no connection to prior adaptations, King developed Wonka to exist as a “companion piece” to the 1971 film by reprising some of the music, thematic elements and visual design of the Oompa Loompas. In May 2021, Chalamet was confirmed to portray Wonka, and the supporting cast was announced in September of that year. Filming began in the United Kingdom in September 2021, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in Watford, as well as Oxford, Lyme Regis, Bath, St Albans and at the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park, London. The film’s original songs were written by Neil Hannon, and its original score by Joby Talbot.

Wonka premiered in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre on November 28, 2023. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 8 and in the United States on December 15 by Warner Bros. Pictures. It has grossed over $513 million worldwide against a $125 million budget, and received generally positive reviews. It received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film, and Chalamet was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Wonka Film

STORY

Willy Wonka, an aspiring magician, inventor, and chocolatier, arrives in Europe to establish his chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet. After using up his meager savings, he is coerced to stay at Mrs. Scrubitt’s boardinghouse by her henchman, Bleacher. Despite orphan Noodle’s warning about the fine print, Wonka signs a contract because he is illiterate. To pay them off, Wonka has an idea and sells “hoverchocs,” chocolates that make people fly, facing mockery from three rival chocolatiers who call the Chief of Police to confiscate his earnings for selling without a chocolate store.

Unable to pay the expensive fees imposed on him by the contract, Wonka is captured and is forced to work in a launderette for Mrs. Scrubitt alongside five other captives, including Noodle. Learning of a “Chocolate Cartel” consisting of the three rival chocolatiers, who exploit the Chief’s temptation for chocolate to force Wonka to leave town, Wonka makes his escape with the help of Noodle; while he promises her a lifetime supply of chocolates, she promises to teach him how to read. Wonka tells Noodle that his affinity for chocolate stems from his late mother, and mentions the theft of his chocolates by an enigmatic orange man who has been stealing them for years. To produce his signature chocolate, Wonka and Noodle travel to the local zoo, milking Abigail the giraffe. Together with the other laundrette workers, they embark on a chocolate selling crusade to alleviate their debts while using tunnels underneath the city to evade Scrubitt and the Chief. Unmasking an Oompa Loompa named Lofty as the thief, Wonka discovers that the Oompa Loompa seeks retribution for the cocoa beans that Wonka stole from Loompaland years ago under Lofty’s watch, before he escapes by duping Wonka.

Using the funds raised from selling chocolates, the captives open Wonka’s dream chocolate store. The Chief and the Chocolate Cartel, who are now unable to arrest him since he has a legitimate shop, reveals Wonka’s shop plan to Scrubitt and Bleacher. They poison his chocolates with different ingredients with negative side effects, such as Yeti sweat. On the store’s opening day, when the customers notice their hair growing and changing color, Wonka reveals that the chocolates have appeared to be poisoned. As a result, the furious customers destroy Wonka’s store. Wonka agrees to the Cartel’s offer to leave town by ship to pay off everyone’s debts. The remaining workers are allowed to leave the launderette except Noodle, as the Cartel’s leader Arthur Slugworth pays Scrubitt to keep her there indefinitely. Wonka deduces that Noodle is Slugworth’s niece, before he and Lofty are forced to jump off the boat that has been rigged to explode. After rescuing Noodle with the help of the group, they create a strategy to obtain the Cartel’s incriminating account book.

Taking advantage of Abigail’s distraction, Wonka and Noodle infiltrate the Cartel’s base. They are confronted by the Cartel, with Slugworth revealing that Noodle, who was reported dead to her mother, Dorothy, was left by him to Scrubitt in order to eliminate her claim to the family fortune. The Cartel attempts to drown Wonka and Noodle in chocolate, but Lofty rescues them and they expose the Cartel’s misdeeds to the authorities and the public. Wonka’s friends release the Cartel’s chocolate reserve through a fountain, laced with Wonka’s unique ingredients, ruining the Cartel’s enterprise. The Cartel meets their downfall, and the police arrest the Chief. The crowd revels in tasting Wonka’s chocolate fountain, and Wonka unwraps the last chocolate bar his mother had given him, discovering a golden paper with a message that says what matters is who you share the chocolate with, so he decides to share it with his friends. He later helps Noodle in reuniting with Dorothy, settles his debt with Lofty, and finds an abandoned castle for sale to start building his own factory, with Lofty as his tasting chef.

In an epilogue, the captives return to their old lives, and Scrubitt and Bleacher are arrested after their attempt to eliminate evidence of sabotaging Wonka’s shop backfires.

CAST

Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka, an aspiring magician, inventor and chocolatier with a difficult dream to open his very own chocolate shop
- Colin O’Brien as Young Willy Wonka
Calah Lane as Noodle, an orphan girl who becomes Willy’s assistant
Keegan-Michael Key as the unnamed chocolate-addicted chief of police who is in cahoots with the Chocolate Cartel
Paterson Joseph as Arthur Slugworth, a corrupt businessman and the leader of the Chocolate Cartel
Matt Lucas as Gerald Prodnose, a corrupt businessman and member of the Chocolate Cartel who always mentions “in which he dies” when the mentioning of someone ending up in “an accident” happens.
Mathew Baynton as Felix Fickelgruber, a corrupt businessman and member of the Chocolate Cartel^[10] who retches at the word “poor”.
Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Wonka, Willy Wonka’s late mother
Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, a corrupt chocolate-addict priest in league with the Chocolate Cartel
Jim Carter as Abacus Crunch who reveals to Wonka the existence of the Chocolate Cartel after previously working as an accountant for Slugworth
Natasha Rothwell as Piper Benz
Olivia Colman as Mrs. Scrubitt
Hugh Grant as Lofty, an Oompa-Loompa who eventually becomes Wonka’s ally
Rich Fulcher as Larry Chucklesworth
Rakhee Thakrar as Lottie Bell
Tom Davis as Bleacher
Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Officer Affable
Simon Farnaby as Basil
Charlotte Ritchie as Barbara
Ellie White as Gwennie
Freya Parker as Miss Bon Bon, Slugworth’s secretary
Sophie Winkleman as The Countess
Murray McArthur as Ship Captain
Tracy Ifeachor as Dorothy Smith, Noodle’s mother
Isy Suttie as Fruit & Veg Vendor
Phil Wang as Colin
Tim FitzHigham as a Sinister Ship Captain

PRODUCTION

Development

In October 2016, Warner Bros. Pictures reacquired the rights to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) character Willy Wonka from Roald Dahl’s estate, with a film in development from producers David Heyman and Michael Siegel. The announcement of the project was met with a mostly negative response as it came less than two months following the death of Gene Wilder, who portrayed Willy Wonka in the 1971 film adaptation. The following month, Heyman revealed that the project would not be a third straight adaptation of the book: “They’ve done two films, quite different. But it’s possibly an origin story. We’re just in the early stages of it, working with a writer called Simon Rich, which is wonderful.”

In February 2018, it was announced Paul King was in negotiations to direct. That year, it was revealed that the film would be a prequel to the events of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. King grew up as a fan of both the book and the 1971 film adaptation, and enjoyed Tim Burton’s 2005 adaptation as an adult. “I was a bit nervous because origin stories don’t always feel essential, and I was aware this is such a beloved property,” he said. After being approached by Heyman to direct, King felt the urge to revisit Dahl’s book and was surprised: “I realised that it’s also an amazing emotional masterpiece. I really wasn’t expecting that. Or maybe I had forgotten how incredibly touching it is. Poor little Charlie suffers so much. And you’re so rooting for him. I found myself in tears at the end of it.” King’s hiring as director, as well as the project’s title, Wonka, was announced in January 2021.

King wanted the film to be a prequel to both the book and the 1971 film adaptation; as such, he decided to set it 25 years before the events of the story. He worked closely with the Dahl estate, particularly producer Luke Kelly, who is Dahl’s grandson. Creating the supporting characters, King was inspired by several of Dahl’s other stories: the trio of villains, the “Chocolate Cartel”, drew inspiration from Boggis, Bunce, and Bean from Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox; and the character of Mrs. Scrubbit was inspired by Dahl’s short story “The Landlady”. King developed the screenplay with his Paddington 2 (2017) collaborator Simon Farnaby, with additional material from Jeff Nathanson, Simon Rich and Simon Stephenson.