New Willy Wonka movie in the works

A new stand-alone story centered around Willy Wonka, but not an origin story.

'Willy Wonka' New Film in the Works From 'Harry Potter' Producer and Warner Bros. »

 

It's a shame they never made Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. A sequel with Gene Wilder would have been great.

The upcoming film has the potential to be interesting. I wonder who will play Willy Wonka.

 

I'd rather see this upcoming than a third pass at Willy Wonka/Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.

 

I see Hollywood's not caring too much about recent accusations that they've entirely run out of ideas...

Harry Potter's team on this? No. Didn't anybody learn from Burton's disastrous remake?

 

Wilder WAS Wonka. Some roles are not worth trying to play.

 

It will be another piece of crap like the Johnny Depp one!

 

I liked the Depp one. Most of it.

 

My understanding is Roald Dahl disliked Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to the point that he refused to the sell the film rights to Great Glass Elevator and it might have been declared off limits in his will.

 

True, but I still love to wonder how epic that film could've been if Roald Dahl's original choice of Spike Milligan was cast, but then, knowing old spike, it would've just been 90 minutes of large breasted women, cheap jokes and random bouts of blackface.

 

Didn't the Burton movie offer something of an "origin story" for Wonka? IIRC, it gave us a lot of backstory for how he came to be who he was...

 

Tim Burton remade Harry Potter?!?!?

 

As is Harry Potter could get any worse.

 

I actually thought the Potter movies got better as they went along. Wasn't wild about the first few but felt the franchise became pretty good as it proceeded!

Can't say I'm excited about the upcoming "spin-off" movie, though - I'll see it but don't expect to be wild about it...

 

Not feeling positive vibes about this one, unless they get somebody totally inappropriate to portray Wonka. r

 

I've read a few articles about Roald Dahl's dislike for the film. I don't think he liked that they turned it into a musical.

 

That's a shame for Dahl. How many writers can say the movie they made out of your book is one of the greatest and most loved movies ever.

 

The Wilder version of Willy Wonka is an absolute classic, IMHO. The Johnny Depp version is an abomination - close your eyes and listen to his voice. Instead of Keith Richards impersonations, he used Michael Jackson as a model. Just wrong on so many levels.

 

So you're saying a Keith-based Wonka would've been better?

 

From Wikipedia:

Dahl disowned the film, the script of which was partially rewritten by David Seltzer after Dahl failed to meet deadlines. Dahl said he was "disappointed" because "he thought it placed too much emphasis on Willy Wonka and not enough on Charlie", as well as the casting of Gene Wilder instead of Spike Milligan.[27] He was also "infuriated" by the deviations in the plot Seltzer devised in his draft of the screenplay, including the conversion of Slugworth, a minor character in the book, into a spy (so that the movie could have a villain) and the "fizzy lifting drinks" scene

 

LOL

 

The best thing about the Tim Burton version was Danny Elfman setting Dahl's lyrics. I loathed the Oompa-Loompas in the original, but Deep Roy was cool.

 

Well, the first third of the movie featured only Charlie and no Wonka. But I do agree about the fizzy lifting scene not being kosher.

 

Yes, Burton was responsible for the backstory that Wonka was the son of a dentist who'd refused to allow him to have candy, so he became a candy-maker as a response. Bleh, what a boring, uncreative and obvious "origin" story. If Dahl didn't like the 1971 film, I think it's safe to say he would have despised what Burton added to his story.

 

Cheers for the info.

I can understand why Roald Dahl was angry. It must be hard for an author when Hollywood folk change a story they created.

Still, I love the film. I'm glad we got Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, and I'm glad they made it into a musical. I can't imagine a world without this song:

 

No. No he wasn't.