This coming December, Warner Bros. Pictures is releasing “Wonka” – a prequel to the classic Roald Dahl novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and its 1971 Gene Wilder-led film adaptation.
The film will see Timothee Chalamet starring as a young Willy Wonka who opens a chocolate shop using the knowledge of sweets he has amassed from his travels. He soon finds himself facing a dangerous Chocolate Cartel.
One notable element of the film is that it will hail from “Paddington” director Paul King who co-wrote the script with Simon Farnaby.
Speaking with Total Film recently, King praised star Chalamet’s singing voice in the family adventure film:
“[Chalamet]’s got a beautiful singing voice. The person it reminded me of was Bing Crosby. There’s quite a range, because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion and he can do it all… I’m going to sound like a crazed fan.”
Chalamet reportedly has several musical numbers in the film, but King is very quick to add that “Wonka” is NOT a musical – just a film that has a few musical numbers in it:
“The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and Roald Dahl always uses poetry. But I didn’t want it to just become a musical where people are singing dialogue to each other for no discernible reason. I felt like it was more like a movie with songs than a musical.”
King has shown his experience with memorable musical numbers in past, such as Hugh Grant’s Sondheim prison musical number from “Paddington 2”.
Calah Lane, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Paterson Joseph, Natasha Rothwell, Jim Carter and Sally Hawkins also star in the film whilst Hugh Grant will play an Oompa Loompa.
“Wonka” opens in theaters nationwide on December 15th.
