‘Wonka’ Exclusive: Director Paul King Talks Working With Timothee Chalamet And Why Roald Dahl-Inspired Villains Are ‘A Joy To Write’

Have
you

checked
out

Wonka
yet?

Source:
Jaap
Buittendijk
/
Warner
Bros.
Pictures

Wonka
director
Paul
King
spoke
with
Global
Grind
about
the
film
ahead
of
its
release
12/15.
King
spoke
about
pulling
from
Roald
Dahl
source
material
to
create
the
prequel,
with
Timothee
Chalamet
starring
as
a
young
Willy.

“Charlie
and
Chocolate
Factory
is
a
book
I
adored
growing
up
and
there’s
all
these
great
stories
about
young
Willy
Wonka
in
them,”
Paul
King
told
GlobalGrind.
“He
was
a
character
that
Roald
Dahl
came
back
to
again
and
again
through
his
life.
It
felt
like
an
area
of
his
life
he
was
really
interested
in
but
never
explored.
So
when
the
opportunity
came
to
play
with
the
Roald
Dahl
world
that
he
created,
the
Willy
Wonka
world,
and
explore
more
of
the
young
Willy
Wonka
for
a
kind
of
origin
story,
I
just
leapt
at
the
chance.”

Of
course
we
had
to
ask
King
about
working
with
Timothée
Chalamet
on

Wonka,
and
he
told
us
that
the
collaboration
was
actually
in
the
making
for
years.

“It
really
was
a
dream
of
mine
for
right
from
when
I
saw

Call
Me
By
Your
Name
and
I
thought
he
was
unbelievable
and
so
good
I
could
hardly
believe
he
was
acting,
it
just
felt
so
true,”
King
recalled.
“Then
I
saw
him
in

Ladybird
and
he
was
so
different.
I
was
like,
‘Oh
my
goodness,
he’s
just
incredible.’
I
was
lucky
enough
to
meet
him
that
year.
I
was
trying
to
write
a
script
for
him,
but
I
could
never
quite
get
it
to
work
and
then
when
the
idea
of
Young
Willy
Wonka
came
along,
it
was
like
‘Ah
yes,
like
put
your
hands
together!’
So
it
was
a
joy.”

Source:
Courtesy
/
Warner
Bros.
Pictures

It
turns
out
another
joy
for
Paul
King
was
penning
the

Wonka
villains,
who
we
can
attest
are
really
some
of
the
baddest
baddies
we’ve
seen
onscreen
in
some
time.
King
actually
credited
Roald
Dahl
for
the
inspiration,
noting,
“in
a
Roald
Dahl
universe,
the
villains
are
the
most
fun,
they’re
the
most
evil,
they’re
completely
irredeemably
awful
and
they’re
a
joy
to
write.”

Of
course,
there’s
an
argument
to
be
made
that
the
Willy
Wonka
that
most
of
us
know
from
Gene
Wilder
and
Johnny
Depp’s
portrayals
is
a
darker
figure
himself.
In
King’s
version
of

Wonka
there’s
really
an
incredible
balance
between
Wonka,
who
is
optimistic,
altruistic
and
full
dreams,
and
his
opps
—
Scrubbit
and
the
Chocolate
Cartel
—
who
reflect
the
kind
of
greed
and
deceptiveness
that
good
people
in
the
real
world
are
constantly
battling
to
avoid.

“I
always
felt
that
when
you
meet
Willy
Wonka
in

Charlie
[and
the
Chocolate
Factory]
he’s
like
this
brittle,
strange,
enigmatic
exterior,
but
at
the
end
of
the
movie
he’s
like
a
chocolate,
cause
you
go
he
has
the
most
amazing
act
of
generosity,
he’s
looking
to
give
away
his
life’s
work
to
a
child,
and
so
we
were
interested
in
taking
that
spirit
of
kindness
and
generosity
and
seeing
how
he
was
right
at
the
start,
when
he’s
a
kind
of
naive,
wide-eyed
young
man
taking
his
first
steps
into
the
world.
But
of
course
because
it’s
a
Roald
Dahl
universe,
the
world
is
not
the
kind,
warm,
fuzzy
place
that
say
Paddington
meets,
it’s
peopled
with
these
horrendously
selfish
mean
spirited
villains.”

Source:
Warner
Bros.
Pictures
/
Warner
Bros.
Pictures

King
also
addressed
giving
Oompa
Loompas
a
voice
via
Hugh
Grant.

“I
loved
the
idea
that
Oompa
Loompas
don’t
have
much
dialogue
in
the
book
or
either
of
the
movies,”
King
told
GlobalGrind.
“But
in
the
books
especially,
they
have
these
incredible
long
songs
and
they’re
so
funny
and
sarcastic
and
witty,
but
kind
of
quite
judgmental.
They’re
all
these
things
and
they
take
this
sort
of
gleeful
pleasure
in
the
demise
of
all
the
ghastly
children
touring
the
factory,
so
I
was
just
reading
these
poems
over
and
over
trying
to
get
a
sense
of
voices
and
Hugh’s
voice,
because
he
shares
some
of
those
characteristics,
kept
coming
into
my
head.
Once
I
had
that,
I
thought,
‘Well
that,
with
the
Dahl
description
of
him,
you
know
knee-high
with
orange
skin
and
and
green
haired,
it
was
too
irresistible
to
to
resist.”

Wonka
is
in
theatres
now!