Posted on Dec 19, 2023
In 'Wonka,' director Paul King serves up sweetness and magic
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https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/ [login to see] /director-paul-king-discusses-his-new-movie-wonka-a-willy-wonka-origin-story
In Wonka, a new musical prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, director Paul King tells the origin story of a young Willy Wonka long before he became the sour fantasy chocolate-maker from Roald Dahl's books.
Wonka, played by Timothée Chalamet, gets tricked into forced labor for a basement wash house, but he quickly dreams up an invention to give himself and the others trapped there a break. He ultimately enrolls the washhouse crew for an underground chocolate-making operation and the opening of his first store.
In Wonka, a new musical prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, director Paul King tells the origin story of a young Willy Wonka long before he became the sour fantasy chocolate-maker from Roald Dahl's books.
Wonka, played by Timothée Chalamet, gets tricked into forced labor for a basement wash house, but he quickly dreams up an invention to give himself and the others trapped there a break. He ultimately enrolls the washhouse crew for an underground chocolate-making operation and the opening of his first store.
In 'Wonka,' director Paul King serves up sweetness and magic
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Posted 6 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."King: He's not somebody I ever met. I came to him through the stories, which seemed to me funny and enchanting as a child, so I didn't have to really wrestle with that. One of our producers was Luke Kelly, who's actually Roald Dahl's grandson and was running the Roald Dahl Story Company. So I know for him it's a much more personal thing, whereas for me, I was fortunate enough just to be able to enjoy the books and the stories and immerse myself in his writing without having to wrestle with Dahl, the man.
A giraffe chases Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, along with 500 chocoholic monks in <em>Wonka.</em>
/ Courtesy Of Warner Bros. Pictures
/
Courtesy Of Warner Bros. Pictures
A giraffe chases Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, along with 500 chocoholic monks in Wonka.
Fadel: But the film does wrestle with really important themes: race, poverty, hypocrisy. But it does it in this childlike, innocent way, if you could talk about that approach.
King: I always felt that Charlie And The Chocolate Factory was really a book about greed and generosity, and it always seemed to me that the bad characters are really different aspects of greed. All the baddies are greedy in different ways, and Charlie is, of course, the opposite of that. We've got a sort of three-headed villain. There's Slugworth, Fickelgruber and Prodnose, a sort of hat off to the Boggis, Bunce and Bean of Fantastic Mr. Fox, and they're characters that Dahl has in Charlie that he briefly alluded to as rival chocolatiers. And then we've got the chief of police, played by Keegan-Michael Key, who just loves the candy and can't get enough chocolate. And I feel closest to him spiritually."...
..."King: He's not somebody I ever met. I came to him through the stories, which seemed to me funny and enchanting as a child, so I didn't have to really wrestle with that. One of our producers was Luke Kelly, who's actually Roald Dahl's grandson and was running the Roald Dahl Story Company. So I know for him it's a much more personal thing, whereas for me, I was fortunate enough just to be able to enjoy the books and the stories and immerse myself in his writing without having to wrestle with Dahl, the man.
A giraffe chases Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, along with 500 chocoholic monks in <em>Wonka.</em>
/ Courtesy Of Warner Bros. Pictures
/
Courtesy Of Warner Bros. Pictures
A giraffe chases Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, along with 500 chocoholic monks in Wonka.
Fadel: But the film does wrestle with really important themes: race, poverty, hypocrisy. But it does it in this childlike, innocent way, if you could talk about that approach.
King: I always felt that Charlie And The Chocolate Factory was really a book about greed and generosity, and it always seemed to me that the bad characters are really different aspects of greed. All the baddies are greedy in different ways, and Charlie is, of course, the opposite of that. We've got a sort of three-headed villain. There's Slugworth, Fickelgruber and Prodnose, a sort of hat off to the Boggis, Bunce and Bean of Fantastic Mr. Fox, and they're characters that Dahl has in Charlie that he briefly alluded to as rival chocolatiers. And then we've got the chief of police, played by Keegan-Michael Key, who just loves the candy and can't get enough chocolate. And I feel closest to him spiritually."...
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