Wonka

Could threads be merged please mods

So, Will.i.am then? That could actually work...

*I quoted the wrong post, but don't know how to correct now.

Rowan Atkinson might make a good Slugworth.

Trailer

Could mods please merge both Wonka Prequel threads

CMod: done.

Hugh Grant as an Orangeman at this time of the year I just have to laugh.

Kinda agree. Saw a trailer for it in the cinema recently and it left me stone cold. I do like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory quite a bit.

There's a very easy way to differentiate. 70's version is called Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, not Charlie.

Anyway, I hated both versions and won't be watching this either. I was a HUGE Roald Dahl fan as a kid but C&TCF is one of those books I'd kind of consider unfilmable because so much of it is down to the reader's imagination/interpretation. Stuff that works perfectly fine on the page becomes problematic on-screen because it's so difficult to portray Wonka as anything other than a bit weird and creepy in real life and obviously the Oompa Loompas are going to cause any filmmaker difficulty. Dahl wrote them as entirely fictional, almost magical creatures but because of their portrayal in the original film, they're almost indelibly associated with offensive stereotypes of people with Dwarfism. If we'd first seen them onscreen as whimsical animated characters, for example, things would be very different, imo, but instead we have an almost unsalvageable situation where any new depiction of them is going to be picked apart and found wanting.

I had to forcibly restrain myself from using that line in my post.

I'd be almost the opposite. To be fair I wouldn't call the Gene Wilder one an abomination, but I've never liked it. It's interesting that Roald Dahl despised it and basically disowned it.

The Burton one I have a lot of time for, not perfect and Johnny Depp overdoes it somewhat, but good fun, it captured the essence of the book infinitely better.

Just reading that  Neil Hannon is writing the sings for this.

That should add another bit of quirkiness to it.

well, my kid loved that trailer.

It's not an idea I'm excited about - but Paul King has produced such absolute magic with the two Paddington movies that I'll go see it from his involvement alone.

Saw it tonight and alas I thought it was pretty much inert, a film without a soul. It looks great but it's this great looking hollow creation. And it was like the equity diversity and inclusion officer was actually the director and not Paul King. Came across like they had to have the correct ratio of black, Asian and Indian actors in every scene. Its movie making by a set of fixed criteria which kills the life and natural vitality of a film, hence the lack of soul.

Seen it with family yesterday, and found it really enjoyable. Very 'Paddington' charming - unsurprising given director, cast, writers etc - but all just pure panto fun.

Yes, I agree with above, as a prequel, if you grew up with Gene Wilder version, it just doesn't gel at all - Chalamet's pure, instant friend making Wonka in a very European quirky town, somehow becomes a reclusive, distrustful factory owner in a depressed Northern English town with no-one but whispering Oompa Loompas as company (no sauve cocktail making chatterbox Hugh Grants)...

But if you can forget about that link, and just go with it, it's fun

Jaysus. That was a hard watch. Very poor attempt.