Warner Bros. Pictures is actively moving ahead with their new Willy Wonka origin tale, and we’re not sure how we feel about it. Obviously, Roald Dahl‘s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” published in 1979 still captures the imagination.
Announced this morning, Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet will be donning the purple top hat. Also, several reports are indicating he’ll be singing AND dancing in the role.
Paul King will direct from the screenplay he wrote with Simon Farnaby. An earlier draft of the project is credited to Simon Rich, Simon Stephenson, Jeff Nathanson, and Steven Levenson. Michael Siegel is executive producing, Luke Kelly is producing, and David Heyman is also producing via his Heyday Films.
Of course no one could ever take the place of the late great Gene Wilder as the iconic candyman. Even though WB tried to have Johnny Depp step into the role in Tim Burton‘s frankly awful adaptation in 2005.
As much as we really don’t WANT another take on the character, we’ll be curious to see what King comes up with.
Chalamet can next be seen in Denis Villenueve‘s “Dune,” which is due out this October. We’ll let you know what we hear about this and other film news.
