Candy Man

What do you get if you mix the ingredients of Timothée Chalamet’s star power, the heartmelting genius of the writer-director of Paddington, the blockbuster worldbuilding of Harry Potter’s producer and the source material of literary legend Roald Dahl? The filmmakers behind the musical origin story of Wonka tell Total Film how they mapped a way to pure imagination…

It’s something of a thrill to enter the hallowed doors of Abbey Road Studios in St John’s Wood and walk in the same footsteps as some of music’s greatest icons to Studio One, the cavernous recording space where Elgar’s symphonies and the soundtracks of The Lord of the Rings, Bond and Star Wars have reverberated (Studio Two next door was used by The Beatles). But the shiver of delight really comes when you hear the rich swell of music dancing around the wood-panelled walls and ceiling from a full orchestra – especially when they’re playing the lilting, haunting notes of Pure Imagination. The central ditty of 1971’s classic kids’ film, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, it’s sung by Gene Wilder’s quixotic confectioner as he introduces a gaggle of kids to his edible wonderland, and has become an embodiment for cornucopian flights of fancy and the power of dreaming (little wonder an entertainment service recently used it on its ads).

It’s late May and the strikes are only a possibility at this point – composer Joby Talbot and songwriter Neil Hannon are hovering nearby to see their compositions for a new iteration of Wonka come to life under the skilled hands of orchestrator and conductor, Jeremy Holland-Smith. As scenes from the movie play on screens in the room, the gathered session musicians (who haven’t seen the sheet music before they arrive) settle to follow Holland- Smith’s baton and create sinister creeping interludes (strings), peppy, bright moments (upper wind section) and that soaring theme for recording technicians to capture. It’s one of the later post-production steps in a journey that began with producer David Heyman – he of Potter fame – when he became friends with Roald Dahl’s widow, Liccy, and began discussing the possibilities of Dahl’s estate on celluloid. The writer’s work had been a big part of his own childhood (‘I was obsessed with Switch Bitch’) and a formative part of what made Rowling’s Potter stories first appeal.

‘In a way, loving Dahl was one of the beginnings of my interest in Harry Potter,’ he smiles when we catch up with him between meetings in August. ‘There’s a connection. It’s family but there’s an irreverence to them. There’s a sense of mischief and play which I really enjoy.’ Dahl also forged new connections for Heyman – ‘I once went for dinner at [Dahl’s Buckinghamshire home] Gipsy House and staying there was Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson, who were writing Fantastic Mr. Fox at the time. That was the first time I’d met Noah, and I’m now in pre-production on the third film with him. And I produced Barbie with [his partner] Greta Gerwig. So Dahl is the root of so much in my life.’

‘Loving Dahl was one of the beginnings of my interest in Harry Potter’

DAVID HEYMAN

Heyman began having conversations with Warner Bros. about the possibility of revisiting Wonka on screen (after forays with the 1971 Wilder film and Johnny Depp’s 2005 take) but approaching from a different angle – that comic-book staple, the origin story. What might have made Willy the man he is by the time he meets Charlie Bucket? ‘I thought: my goodness, this is crazy: who better to tackle that than Paul King, who I’d worked with on the two Paddingtons, who was a friend and collaborator, and who I had boundless admiration for, both as a writer and as a director? He brings the power of imagination, an incredible ability to create a world that is grounded but has a slightly heightened aspect to it. Very funny, very human. A big, beating heart. What I felt that Paul would do brilliantly was create something that felt related to the book, and yet stand on its own, that would appeal to adults and to children.’ Ah, the cinematic jackpot, the four-quadrant movie.

Certainly King has form in taking a beloved children’s book and making narratives so delightful that all-ages audiences swell the box office and Queen Elizabeth happily appears in marmalade sandwich sketches with a Peruvian bear. A kid who’d read a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory until it fell apart, King was intrigued when Heyman floated the idea. ‘I went back and read it again, and realised how incredibly formative it had been, because it’s everything that I like – that combination of deep, emotional satisfaction, and the Dickensian vibe to some of the world, and also these grotesque, larger-than-life, comedic characters. And that sort of sense that magical things can be just around the corner,’ King enthuses from his writing room, his story-beat Post-its on the wall behind him. A jovial man who could be a member of the Brown family himself, he’s a cheery talker and apt to speaking in terms of enchantment. ‘It’s got this extraordinary backbone, and this very, very moving story. I expected it to be funny, grotesque, ridiculous and to have all the verbal fireworks that you expect with Dahl. But I hadn’t expected to burst into tears at the end when Charlie inherits the chocolate factory.’

The success of two Paddington movies gave him a confidence to tackle another beloved tome (King also has a story credit on the upcoming third film which he describes as a fish-out-of-water comedy where the tables are turned on the Brown family as they visit Peru, ‘like the third act of Triangle of Sadness’). ‘It made me feel that it was possible to dip my toe into an area which means a huge amount to people, and not necessarily screw it up!’ he chuckles. ‘But the fear of screwing it up is still overwhelming on a daily basis. That’s essentially how I wake up – screaming, at 4 o’clock in the morning. But if you’re trying to write a story, you’ve got a huge head start, because you’ve got loads of Roald Dahl’s ideas to work from. You’ve got these great filmmakers that have been before you, and have dug into it. So you’re standing on the shoulders of giants. Yeah, it’s further to fall, but you might reach the stars.’

‘You’ve got a huge head start, because you’ve got loads of Roald Dahl’s ideas to work from’

PAUL KING

As King got to work using the book as his ‘North star’ and weaving visual iconography and ‘the soul of Willy Wonka’ from Wilder’s interpretation (‘I wanted this film to be able to exist, and then you can watch that film, and they don’t contradict each other’), Heyman brought another Paddington alumnus onboard to usher the chocolate magnate’s journey into the world. Producer Alexandra Derbyshire had just built a big universe in the UK with Jurassic World Dominion and describes Wonka as ‘impossible to turn down’. And then there were the songs. This was, says King, integral to the Dahlian nature of it. ‘The Oompa Loompas sing a lot in the book, and 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.’

Which brings us to Abbey Road and The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon. He’s taking a break in the studio garden when we catch up with him. King was a fan of the band (‘I knew it would happen eventually, that a Divine Comedy fan would attain a position of power,’ Hannon laughs) and approached him about turning his pen to musical ditties to sit alongside Pure Imagination and Oompa Loompa from the 1971 pic. King and Hannon gelled on a Zoom call and the songwriter set about writing a sad ballad or two and ‘some real, extra rambunctious… Like a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang kind of song’ in his sitting room as the pandemic faded. The fit is perfect according to Heyman. ‘He writes lyrics and music which feels classical but has a contemporary aspect to it,’ says the producer. ‘The lyrics by Neil are very funny, they have great humour.’ Hannon’s former keyboard player bandmate turned scorer (Sing and Sing 2), Joby Talbot, then took his work and folded it into a wider musical environment, making the transition from drama to singing a smooth one. ‘If you’re watching a musical, and you’re really invested in the character, and then they’re singing about how they feel – that really draws you in,’ Talbot says. ‘You know, as a kid, I don’t remember questioning it. It just seems magical, and seems to fit into that world.’

Pre Willy

Speaking of fitting in, King needed to find an actor who could join the dots between a character Heyman describes as ‘a more innocent Willy – arriving in a place full of dreams and hope’, and Wilder’s cynical trickster who happily half-drowns, shrinks and disfigures kids, swishing that dapper walking stick around like a weapon. Two actors who boast a wide-eyed quality and evoke the internet’s thirst, Tom Holland and Timothée (or ‘Timmy’ as everyone calls him) Chalamet were considered. Holland bagged King’s upcoming Fred Astaire biopic, Chalamet the top hat and cane of Wonka.

‘He’s a great actor, eminently likeable, he has a twinkle in his eye, he’s very sensitive,’ says Heyman of his call sheet number one. ‘Timmy can handle the comedy, the drama, the emotion. He’s got a voice like an angel. You always feel that there’s a truth to his performance. He’s warm and really tender. But he’s hip. But this is different from what we’ve seen of Timmy. He’s very ambitious for his craft. He wants to work with people who are going to challenge him, in roles that are going to challenge him.’ King agrees: ‘I just think he’s absolutely one of the great actors of his generation. He’s incredibly present. He’s so extraordinarily precise, and he can sing, dance, he’s very funny, and he has that slightly unknowable, manic kind of strangeness. Some wonderful, wonderful actors have played Willy Wonka, but he’s my favourite.’

We can’t ask Timmy his feelings on landing the role or playing the part due to the strike, but he did tell Vogue (pre-industrial action) of his reasons for taking the gig, something of a side-step for an actor who blazed to fame in intense roles such as love-lorn Elio in Call Me by Your Name as well as The King, Dune (Part Two arriving next year), The French Dispatch and Bones and All. ‘To work on something that will have an uncynical young audience, that was just a big joy. That’s why I was drawn to it. In a time and climate of intense political rhetoric, when there’s so much bad news all the time, this is hopefully going to be a piece of chocolate.’ (Further chat of chocolate is incoming, we promise.)

Chalamet’s acting prowess is undisputed and King is rapturous about his ability to be both specific and open in the moment. ‘The way he can access the depths of human emotion is second to none. And yet he’s also incredibly technical and precise. Even when he’s doing a scene where he’s really moved, where another actor might go, “I just have to be in the moment” – he would go, “Oh, yeah, you want the light to catch my eye for that?” He can do such a range of performances, and every take is very different. That is an extraordinary gift.’ The 27-year-old’s ability to sing however, has only been hinted at via croons to horses in SNL sketches and his precocious high school performances seen on YouTube. Rest assured, says King, Chalamet has the pipes.

‘He’s a little more interested in eating chocolate than he is in enforcing the laws of municipality’

KEEGAN-MICHAEL KEY

‘He’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.’ Certainly the huge fandom Chalamet brings with him doesn’t harm the marketability of the movie, but it did prompt interesting encounters during filming on location in Bath, Oxford, and on the Cobb at Lyme Regis. Though King had initially envisaged Wonka in a middle-European city like the 1971 film, it became clear early on that the best way to convey the world that Willy arrives in as bright-eyed wannabe confectioner – ‘the chocolate capital of the world, like how Switzerland is to watches’ – would be better created at Leavesden Studios. When the team did venture out to film in real locations it proved that closed sets also offered privacy for Chalamet. ‘There was the odd moment whenever we were on location that I got the insight into Timothée Chalamet’s life,’ King laughs, ‘which is people leaning out of windows, shouting, “MARRY ME, TIMMY!”’ Facilitated by a social media info-swap known as ‘Wonka Watch’, fans seemed to find their man wherever he shot. ‘We managed to get Timmy in and out, and it didn’t impact us too badly,’ Derbyshire chuckles, ‘It was slightly like The Beatles at times. I’m not sure a film entirely on location would have been that easy, because Wonka Watch would have got us!’

Bittersweet

Chalamet genius aside, a Wonka prequel lives and dies on its story. Exploring Willy’s prefactory life sees the young chocoholic arrive in the capital of candy hoping to make a mark and open his own emporium. His ambitions are scuppered by the chocolate cartel of Slugworth, Fickelgruber, and Prodnose (played by Paterson Joseph, Mathew Baynton and Matt Lucas); the machinations of evil washer-house duo Scrubit and Bleacher (Olivia Colman with grotty fake teeth, and Tom Davis); and the ineptitude of the choccie-guzzling chief of police (Keegan- Michael Key). ‘He’s a little more interested in eating chocolate than he is in enforcing the laws and the codes of his municipality,’ Key smiles. ‘He has a voracious appetite for chocolate, and you’ll see the directions that takes him. Outward…’

And then there’s the Oompa Loompas, Wonka’s candy-making minions who serve him in the factory later in life. They’re loyal to their top-hatted master then, but not so much here. Angered by Wonka taking a key ingredient for his confections from them in Loompaland (a region of Loompa in the Hangdoodles, per Dahl) a furious Oompa Loompa tracks Willy to his lodgings to settle things. Described in the book as teeny creatures ‘no higher than my knee’ with golden hair, but transformed into green-tressed, orange-skinned little people by Mel Stuart’s film, King went back to the source material to find their voice. ‘Roald Dahl knew a thing or two about what captures a child’s imagination and that depiction certainly worked for me. I was enchanted by the idea of these impossibly tiny beings, far smaller even than the child-sized me. The voice and the attitude of the Oompa Loompa came from revisiting the books – long songs full of humour, sarcasm, superiority and scorn. So it was really just thinking about that character – someone who can be a real shit. And I went, “Ah, Hugh [Grant]!” Because he’s the funniest, most sarcastic shit that I’ve ever met! We’d been there before with Paddington 2. I had to write him this awkward letter, saying, “You’re good at playing washed-up, old hams…”’

Grant signed up and, though digitally created by Framestore, was physically on set for all his scenes so that he and Chalamet could rehearse and find an organic rhythm to their banter. If you’ve seen the trailer you’ll have enjoyed the fun Grant brings to his diminutive character, trapped in a bell jar after stealing from Wonka. ‘Once you see Hugh Grant as an 18-inch high orange man with green hair,’ says King, ‘you go, “Ah, yes. I know what Oompa Loompas are. It all makes perfect sense.”’

With all this nefarious activity, Willy needed an ally. And that comes with his befriending of orphaned girl, Noodle. ‘Dahl delights in double acts,’ King nods. ‘I like the idea of a grown-up who’s more of a child, and a child who’s more of a grown-up. So Noodle is very much an old, wise head on young shoulders, and they make this unlikely alliance to change the world.’ A global casting search found Calah Lane, a then 12-year-old Hollywood native, who auditioned for a secret project known as ‘Nutmeg and Johnny’. As she progressed through each audition stage, Lane became aware of the huge project she was competing for and chatted with Chalamet via Zoom as he finished filming Bones and All. That connection was nurtured through filming to give the pair tangible chemistry together. ‘When we first got onto set, we would give each other a high five,’ the now 14-year tells us. ‘He’s always making me laugh. We were always telling jokes to each other. The cast would sit in this whole circle. They didn’t just have chairs. We would all stand up and sit in a circle, and we would just talk to each other. We would have the best time ever.’ That experience included being drenched in liquid chocolate on one of production designer Nathan Crowley’s extravagant sets (‘Covering Timothée Chalamet in chocolate would be some people’s highlight,’ King chuckles). ‘It’s fun but it was kind of cold,’ Lane shivers. ‘I actually got chocolate all over Paul. I went, “You want a hug?” I got it all over his nice, clean shirt.’

That wasn’t the only chocolate kicking around on set. ‘Obviously it’s a big film, and there’s lots of visual effects in it. But there was so much that was achieved in-camera,’ says King. ‘Willy has this extraordinary, mini travelling factory – he has a suitcase, which is a mini kitchen. That’s all completely in-camera. It all absolutely works. All the chocolates that are eaten in the film are real chocolates that taste delicious, and they were made by our amazing on-set chocolatier.’ [See boxout on page 34.] Derbyshire smiles at the memory of the ‘show and tell’ meetings when chocolatier Gabriella Cugno would bring her edible creations to meetings. ‘They were all laid out so beautifully with all these choices for Paul to make, and then, at the end, there was a little plate of them, and we could all try them.’

Golden Ticket

With a Christmas release date, Wonka seems to have big-bucks ambition at the box office, so is there pressure to compete with the success of Heyman’s most recent WB triumph, Barbie? After all, an opening weekend usually opens a door for a second bite of the (chocolate-covered) cherry. ‘There’s no pressure, just excitement,’ shrugs Heyman. ‘Just the pressure that every artist and every producer puts on themselves, which is to make the best film possible. That’s really all one does. The only common thread between it and Barbie is that I’m a producer, and there are some songs.’ But the producer isn’t about to pretend that sequels haven’t been thought about. ‘You know, we work in Hollywood. There’s always an appetite.’

King, after all, has masterfully managed to replicate the delight of Paddington (we await to see if the third outing will be as charming without him at the helm). And he’s open to the possibility of exploring this new/old world further. ‘Dahl was definitely interested in taking Willy Wonka on. There’s drafts that didn’t really go anywhere, and there’s a short story. He didn’t really write sequels, but this was the one book where he clearly felt there was more in the tank there. There’s an awful lot more Wonka story that we have that we would like to tell. It’s not like Dune: Part One where you go, “This is what’s happening in Part Two.” Hopefully it works exquisitely as a stand-alone movie. But I would definitely like to do more. And I’d like to spend more time in this world, and meet some more Oompa Loompas.’

‘I think there would be space for a sequel if people really enjoy the film’

ALEXANDRA DERBYSHIRE

For Derbyshire, the prospect of more Wonka isn’t just a business decision but a case of being spoiled by the delicious experience of making this one. ‘I think there would be space for a sequel if people really enjoy the film. But there are not many projects that are as worldbuilding as this. So I’m slightly concerned about what I can do next!’

‘But that’s really why I love to go to the movies,’ adds King. ‘It’s to get lost in a different place for a couple of hours. To me, cinema has always been a magical place where that can happen. You can go anywhere, and just fall into a different world, where the most extraordinary things seem possible.’ A world of pure imagination indeed…

WONKA IS IN CINEMAS ON 15 DECEMBER. All actor interviews completed before SAG-AFTRA strike action