LOS ANGELES: The chocolatey world of Willy Wonka is back, and director Paul King insists that it is “funny, it’s colorful and it’s chaotic.”
The fantasy musical “Wonka,” which released on Dec. 14 in Saudi Arabia, is a prequel that tells the origin story of the iconic chocolatier from Roald Dahl’s 1964 book, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
The film follows the young and eager Wonka, played by Timothee Chalamet, who moves to the city to pursue his dream of opening his very own chocolate shop after the death of his chocolatier mom, played by Sally Hawkins.
To his disappointment, the industry turns out to be occupied by evil chocolatiers whom he strives to overcome with the help of his assistant Noodle, played by actress Calah Lane.
“My character Noodle is an orphan and she stays down in this washhouse where she is, you know, not really loved and she has to work all the time,” the actress said. “It’s just, you know, it’s hard for her and she doesn’t really have a family. So when Willy comes around, she’s like: ‘Oh, maybe I can have a friend.’ So she decides to help him and he just takes her along on his journey to become a chocolatier.”
King, who co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Farnaby, said the story has a “really strong emotional spine and I thought it’s such a wonderful world. It’s sort of everything I’ve always loved about stories.”
“It’s everything I tried to do in the Paddington films and the chance of being able to dip my toe into that world was too enticing for words,” King added.
British actor Hugh Grant, who appears in the film as Lofty, a 47-centimeter-tall orange Oompa-Loompa who is tracking Wonka around the world, told Arab News: “I do love to sing these days and dance in every film, and so I relished that prospect.”
“We worked on various things and, you know, looked a lot at that original Gene Wilder film. The Oompa-Loompa they were up to there, and the song I sing is one of those songs. Then, I worked absurdly with a choreographer, and there’s really not very much dancing. It didn’t deserve that,” he joked.
