Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl’s most iconic children’s book and one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, “Wonka” tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.
From Paul King, writer/director of the “Paddington” films, David Heyman, producer of “Harry Potter,” “Gravity,” “Fantastic Beasts” and “Paddington,” and producers Alexandra Derbyshire (the “Paddington” films, “Jurassic World: Dominion”) and Luke Kelly (“Roald Dahl’s The Witches”), comes an intoxicating mix of magic and music, mayhem and emotion, all told with fabulous heart and humor. Starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, this irresistibly vivid and inventive big screen spectacle will introduce audiences to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time—proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.
Starring alongside Chalamet are Calah Lane (“The Day Shall Come”), Emmy and Peabody Award winner Keegan-Michael Key (“The Prom,” “Schmigadoon”), Paterson Joseph (“Vigil,” “Noughts + Crosses”), Matt Lucas (“Paddington,” “Little Britain”), Mathew Baynton (“The Wrong Mans,” “Ghosts”), Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins (“The Shape of Water,” the “Paddington” films, “Spencer”), Rowan Atkinson (the “Johnny English” and “Mr. Bean” films, “Love Actually”), Jim Carter (“Downton Abbey”), with Oscar winner Olivia Colman (“The Favourite,” “The Lost Daughter”) and Hugh Grant (“Paddington 2,” “A Very English Scandal”). The film also stars Natasha Rothwell (“White Lotus,” “Insecure”), Rich Fulcher (“Marriage Story,” “Disenchantment”), Rakhee Thakrar (“Sex Education,” “Four Weddings and a Funeral”), Tom Davis (“Paddington 2,” “King Gary”) and Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (“Paddington 2,” “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” “Mary Poppins Returns”).
Simon Farnaby (“Paddington 2”) & Paul King wrote the screenplay, based on a story by King and characters created by Roald Dahl. Michael Siegel, Cate Adams, Rosie Alison and Tim Wellspring are serving as executive producers. King’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Chung-Hoon Chung (“Last Night in Soho,” “Ah-ga-ssi”); Oscar-nominated production designer Nathan Crowley (“Tenet,” “Dunkirk”); editor Mark Everson (the “Paddington” films); Oscar-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming (the “Paddington” films, “Topsy-Turvy”); and composer Joby Talbot (the “Sing” films). Neil Hannon of the band The Divine Comedy is writing original songs for the film.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents, in Association with Village Roadshow Pictures, a Heyday Films Production, a Paul King Confection, “Wonka,” set to open in theaters and in IMAX internationally beginning 6 December 2023 and in North America on December 15, 2023; it will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
CHARACTERS
Willy Wonka
• You’d never guess that Willy Wonka, an eccentric young man in a battered top hat and tattered old tailcoat, was the world’s greatest magician, inventor and chocolate maker.
• He arrives in the cathedral of candy known as the Galeries Gourmet hoping to share his chocolate with the world and take his rightful place among the world’s greatest chocolatiers, only to find things aren’t quite so simple in the world of big business.
• Before he knows it, he’s lost what little he had – and finds himself forced to work for slave wages at Scrubitt and Bleacher’s Guest House and Laundry – whose ominous motto is “Come for the night, stay forever!”
Noodle
• A smart, cynical, sardonic young orphan, Noodle is the long-suffering serving girl at Scrubitt and Bleacher’s. She has spent her life being worked to the bone, dragging vast piles of laundry all over town in her rusty old cart.
• She warms to Willy despite his naivety, and together they hatch a plot to smuggle Willy out of the Wash House in her laundry cart so they can sell enough chocolate to buy their freedom.
Mrs Scrubitt
• Proprietor of Scrubitt and Bleacher’s Guest House and Laundry, Mrs Scrubitt is a gin-soaked snob who dreams of finding herself a new husband of wealth and status, ideally a Bishop or a Prince. In the meantime, she keeps her pockets lined by duping her unsuspecting guests into signing a contract (with impenetrable small print) which commits them to years of servitude, working in washhouse for pennies.
Bleacher
• A hulking broken-toothed bruiser Bleacher walks the streets at night with his bull mastiff, Tiddles, searching for any potential guests to bring back to Mrs Scrubitt. He has been in love with her for years, but doesn’t stand a chance given he is, as she so charmingly puts it, just an “idle peasant.”
Slugworth
• A proud, confident chocolatier with a bone-crushing handshake and an unshakable belief in business as a model for life, Arthur Slugworth formed a Chocolate Cartel with his supposed rivals Fickelgruber and Prodnose, and together they have always managed to smash the competition.
Fickelgruber
• Tall, spindly and immaculately dressed, Felix Fickelgruber has a taste for the finer things in life. His one weakness is an inability to hear anyone say the word “poor” without being a little bit sick in his mouth.
Prodnose
• Short, round, and daft, yet utterly ruthless, Gerald Prodnose has an irritating habit of stating the obvious which drives Fickelgruber round the twist.
Abacus Crunch
• Abacus came to town for what seemed a straightforward job – doing the books for Slugworth. He discovered the truth about the Chocolate Cartel but before he could blow the whistle, found himself fired and cast out on the street. Shell-shocked, he checked into Scrubitt and Bleacher’s, and for once in his life forgot to read the small print…
Piper Benz
• Smart and efficient, Piper Benz is a plumber by trade, but in practice, the only pipes in her sights these days are the ones flushing out the dirty laundry. She longs to get out of the Wash House and back to her old friends and the job she loves.
Larry Chucklesworth
• Larry is an old-school comedian who drives his fellow Wash House workers up the wall with his appalling jokes. He longs to escape and make up with his ex-wife. His only discernible talent is doing an underwater voice but Willy Wonka can find a use for everyone.
Lottie Bell
• Lottie Bell was once quite a chatterbox who worked as a telephone switchboard operator. Since the night she checked into Scrubitt and Bleacher’s, however, she has had very little to shout about – and now is now almost completely silent. She dreams of getting the world talking once more.
Chief of Police
• The Chief of Police is less interested in putting away criminals than putting away chocolates. He has been the Cartel’s enforcer for years, moving aspiring chocolatiers on in exchange for a box of his favorite chocs.
• When the Cartel want to step things up a notch, the Chief is able to negotiate increasingly large bribes – which lead to an increasingly large waistline.
Officer Affable
• A good man in a corrupt department, Officer Affable has begun to suspect something is up with his rapidly ballooning boss, and is on hand to help restore justice.
Father Julius
• Temptation has proven impossible to resist for this Priest with a taste for sinfully delicious chocolate, whose confessional booth leads to unexpected depths…
The Oompa Loompa
• Willy’s nemesis is a Little Orange Man, about eighteen inches high with orange skin and bright green hair, who comes in the dead of night to steal all his chocolates. Nobody has ever seen him apart from Willy, who sets out to trap him, thereby proving his existence to the cynical Noodle.
• The Oompa Loompas are some of Roald Dahl’s most beloved characters, described in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as “tiny, fantastical creatures…with funny long hair…no higher than my knee.” For this movie, Paul King has chosen to honor the iconic design of the 1971 Mel Stuart movie, while reflecting Dahl’s vision as closely as possible.
Mamma
• Willy grew up with his mother working on a barge. They didn’t have a lot of money, but each week she scraped together enough to buy one cocoa bean, and by the time his birthday came around, there was enough to make a single bar of chocolate.
• Despite their meagre circumstances, Mamma encouraged her son to believe in a brighter future, that one day they might make it to the Galeries Gourmet and sell their chocolate alongside the world’s finest chocolatiers.
• The memory of her chocolate has stayed with Willy in the years since her death, even though he has never uncovered the secret that made it quite so good.
• He is haunted by her final words. “Every good thing in this world started with a dream, so you hold onto yours, and when you do share chocolate with the world, I’ll be right there beside you.”
LOCATION
The City
• Mel Stuart’s movie was shot in Germany and both the book and film have a delightfully pan-European feel. For this film, Paul King says “We’ve created is a wonderful middle-European island city, a culinary wonder and the chocolate capital of the world. But in keeping with Dahl’s vision, it’s very much a city of haves and have-nots. While the island itself is grand and wealthy, the mainland is far more run-down and seedy, a menacing world where danger lurks around every corner.”
Galeries Gourmet
• Beneath a glittering dome lies a grand arcade that houses the most exclusive chocolate shops in town—Fickelgruber, Prodnose and Slugworth. Inspired by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan, the Galeries Gourmet is to food what that architectural masterpiece is to fashion: the ultimate dream.
Wonka’s Factory
• Brought to vivid life by Willy Wonka’s pure imagination, a ruined castle becomes a rich world of Willy’s creation, sprouting chocolate grass and flowers, and even a chocolate waterfall flowing into a river of chocolate.
CANDIES
Hoverchoc
• A marvelous morsel, an incredible edible, the Hoverchoc is exotic combination of purest Wonka chocolate, marshmallow (from the mallow-marshes of Peru), caramel (salted with the bitter-sweet tears of a Russian Clown) and cherry (cherry-picked by the pick of the cherry pickers in the Imperial Gardens of Japan.) But the real secret lies at the center: a microscopic hover-fly that beats its wings so powerfully it allows the consumer to float. After 20 minutes, the hover-fly will tire and exit through the rear.
Silver Lining
• Made of condensed thunder clouds and liquid sunlight, the Silver Lining helps you see that faint ray of hope beyond the shadow of despair. Side effects may include saying the word “huh” more often than normal.
Big Night Out
• A single chocolate that mimics a night on the town. The outer layer is champagne truffle. Then comes white wine, followed by red. That’s when the singing and dancing starts. Next is a layer of whisky fudge (which may prompt deep emotions and reckless behavior), followed by some old port which prompts a deep lasting sleep.
• A tiny aspirin at the center of the chocolate fizzes on the tongue causing the victim / consumer to wake up with a strange aftertaste of shame and regret, but come five o’clock they will want to do it all over again.
Giraffe Milk Macaroon
• Made with the distilled milk of a giraffe, this macaroon will restore your zeal and make you feel the tallest in the room. Say farewell to feeling small, and frightened of it all. With Wonka’s Giraffe Milk Macaroon, you’ll feel ten feet tall!
Forty Second Sweet
• This little marvel – known colloquially as the Broadway Choc – will make you break into song and dance. Share it with your friends and soon your whole life will be like a perfectly choreographed Broadway Show!
Hair Repair Éclair
• Lost your hair? Can’t think quite where? Feeling fairly bare up there? Don’t despair! Wonka’s prepared! Behold his hair repair eclair. Made from ground vanilla, from the mountains of Manilla, it includes a single drop of yeti sweat which will prompt full, thick growth. Try mixing it with chameleon juice for even more colorful results!
Acacia Mint
• Along with a good scratch behind the ears, nothing sooths the inquisitive soul of Abigail the Giraffe—or puts her in a more generous mood—like a handful of Willy Wonka’s Acacia Mints.
The Wonka Bar
• Every year for his birthday, Willy’s Mamma gave him a single bar of chocolate, lovingly secured in a homemade wrapper. Willy has saved the last bar of Mamma’s Chocolate, until the moment when he fulfils his promise to her, that one day he would share their chocolate with the world. A lucky few may find a golden ticket hidden within…