 | Courtesy: Warner Bros | |
| The Candyman Can
| | Johnny Depp and Tim Burton explain how they brought a new recipe to the Chocolate Factory | |
|
| At Pinewood Studios in England, the mysterious world first depicted in Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then made popular by Mel Stuart's movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (starring Gene Wilder), arises again, from the fantasy of director Tim Burton, screenwriter John August (Big Fish) and actor Johnny Depp. |
|
| Burton, 46, read Dahl's novel when he was a child. "Now, there are the Harry Potters and things, but at the time, for my generation, there weren't many writers like Roald Dahl who were what you might call adult writers for children," he says. "Roald captured the weirdness and subversive nature of childhood and his work also had a fantastic sense of humor which I felt very close to." The goal of Burton's adaptation was "to try and be as true to the spirit of the book as we could be," though the director also chose to invent a past for Willy Wonka, investigating it through flashbacks. |
| Burton used computer graphics sparingly. Actor Deep Roy, for instance, has been digitally replicated to play the musical Oompa Loompas, all of them. As for the book's chocolate river, the director created it on the set, using food preservatives and a thickening agent. He also faced his own fear of squirrels, by casting real ones to sort walnuts in one of the movie's scenes. "The squirrels were tricky, they freak me out anyway. If I see one in my garden or in the park I kind of flinch," says the director. |
| The five lucky children who win a "golden ticket" that opens the gates of Wonka's secret world are: Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) starring as Charlie; Anna Sophia Robb as Violet, a compulsive gum-chewer as in the book and additionally a fierce competitor; Jordan Fry in the role of TV-addict Mike, who is now also wired to video games; Philip Wiegratz starring as Augustus, the glutton, and Julia Winter as the spoiled Veruca. |
| Wonka is played by Depp, an actor who fully shares Burton's sense for the absurd, as proved by their previous collaboration in Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the upcoming animation Corpse Bride. In an interview, Depp talks about what inspired his performance and how he prepared for it. |
Q: Who was your inspiration? | Johnny Depp: When Tim [Burton] and I talked about doing it, there was no script at the time, there was only the book. It was a gift, because I could use Dahl's work for my notes. What I started to think about in my early research was that I had these memories of children's show hosts. When I was a kid, like five years old, watching guys like Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, guys like that, I remembered thinking even then how odd it was the way that they spoke, that bizarre musical rhythm and cadence to their speech. So, I took that and made that one of the main ingredients for Wonka. |
| I was also thinking about game show hosts that I remembered on TV growing up and that perpetual grimace grin. They are not like that at home, at least I hope not. They go on stage and put a mask on, then do their thing, then take it off again. |
| The Prince Valiant haircut came to me early when I was doing little sketches of what might be right. I thought of this strange, almost like a Brian Jones bob with really short bangs. I was thinking of a guy in terms that he obviously lived in this self-induced isolation and removed himself from the modern world, so his point of reference would be very dated. So, I thought maybe he had locked himself in a room with a stack of Herman Hermits records. And also that became part of the speech. It would be very dated, like when I talked jive to one of the kids. |
| JD: They were great. For about the first 10 days you would get these [shocked] looks. So they would check each other out and weren't quite sure how to deal with it. They caught on and started to enjoy it. I remember one take, in particular, where I started speaking jive to little Jordan, who played Mike Teavee. I had this idea that he should speak jive, so I came up with this idea of "it's in the fridge daddio, are you hip to the jive?" And we were doing a rehearsal and I went up to him and put out my hand and said, "slide me some skin daddio." He tilted at an angle backwards, looking up at me and, he was just like, "that's not in the script." It killed me, I just burst into hysterical laughter. |
Q: Did you improvise on the film? | JD: Oh yeah, Tim is very good about stuff like that. Tim and John August are great about it. And it's some kind of illness. I just can't help myself, I need to do it, and if I don't, I feel like I'm held captive or something. There are times when you know that you are doing it too much and you kind of have to stop yourself, but there are times when I feel very strongly about adding something. The trick is that you can say anything, do a take of anything and then go back to the page |
Q: What [are the] risks [of playing Wonka]? | JD: Fans of the book, fans of the 1971 film. It's a very well-loved character both to fans of the book and of Gene Wilder's brilliant performance in that early film. I knew I had to take it somewhere far away from where Gene Wilder had stomped. Having that amazing material by Roald Dahl and taking that and trying to interpret what he might have liked to see in terms of cinema, what kind of character would he have liked. There's such darkness and light in that story and such a subversive undertone, such a twisted perverted kind of side to the character that I ran in the direction that just seemed right to me. |
| Filled with unforgettable musical numbers, particularly the Oompa Loompas' theme song ("Oompa Loompa doompadee doo/ I've got another puzzle for you"), Gene Wilder's 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a timeless classic and it's hard to believe it is now almost 35 years old. |
| At a time when special effects were at their simplest, set designer Harper Goff brought Dahl's factory to life with chocolate rivers and (edible!) gummy bear trees, a stunning backdrop to the whirlwind ride of a lifetime for Charlie and his companions. |
| Wilder's portrayal of the eccentric confectioner takes on a menacing twist, making the film all the more potent. His performance is supported by a remarkable cast of young actors: Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca), Denise Nickerson (Violet), Paris Themmen (Mike) and Michael Bollner (Augustus). Each of them is the embodiment of an evil of society, a children's version of the seven deadly sins, so to speak, while the soft-spoken and polite Charlie, played by Peter Ostrum, in a performance reminiscent of John Howard Davies' role as Oliver Twist in 1948, is the antithesis to them. |
| Wilder's initial reaction to Burton's remake was not kind, according to the World Entertainment News Network. The actor reportedly said, "It's all about money. It's just some people sitting around thinking 'How can we make some more money?' Why else would you remake Willy Wonka? I don't see the point of going back and doing it all over again. I like Johnny Depp, and I appreciate that he has said on record that my shoes will be hard to fill. But I don't know how it will all turn out.' After seeing Depp's performance, however, the actor had a 180-degree change in heart, saying, "If I were going to cast the movie, I would cast Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka because I think he is wonderful. Mysterious - always - and magical." |
|
 | Courtesy: Warner Bros | |
 | Courtesy: Warner Bros | Cast and crew by the chocolate river |
 | | Gene Wilder and the Oompa Loompas |
|
