Just like the movies Paddington, Wonka was devised by Paul King, a lifelong fan of Roald Dahl, screenwriter and director, who according to his collaborators could well be Paddington in a human suit. Featuring a beloved group of actors, including Grant, Timothe Chalamet, Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Keegan-Michael Key, Natasha Rothwell and Paterson Joseph, as well as newcomer Calah Lane, their vibrant costumes and sets and infectious show energy, Wonka It feels like a modern homage to the classic MGM productions of the 1940s.
But King wasn’t so sure. Wonka at first. No one really, except for producer David Heyman, whose credits include Harry Potter, Paddington and the most important film of the year, Barbie. King was concerned that, like so many other brands, a young Willy Wonka movie would be something concocted in a boardroom with visions of: “12,000 movies and a TV show.”
The initiative of a prequel
Then he returned to the book, which he had read so many times as a child that the pages fell off. This time he not only found a great character in Willy Wonka, a flamboyant and unapologetic dreamer with whom Dahl also seemed a little obsessed, but also a great revelation about his work.
“I realized how formative Dahl had been about everything I love about family films. They have fantastic characters, but they also have a really beating heart,” King said. “It was like, oh, this is the mothership.”
And, with his co-writer Paddington 2Simon Farnaby, would spend years working hard on what they call a companion piece to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie and the chocolate factory) the Gene Wilder.
Chalamet, the very popular actor nominated for an Oscar for Call Me By Your Name (call me by your name) y Dune (Dune), He wasn’t technically a singing and dancing man (although his teenage fingerprint contains evidence to the contrary) when he signed on to play Wonka. But King was convinced that he was the perfect person to balance a sincere side with a ridiculous one thanks in part to his memorable (and “very good”) performance in Lady Bird of Greta Gerwig.
This was a bit disconcerting for Chalamet, who only found out at the London premiere. For the actor, Wonka It was an opportunity to do something a little different, on a large scale. He also understands that audiences are a little skeptical of any new version of a beloved character, but he takes comfort in something Gerwig said while they were making Little Women (Mujercitas).
She remembered the director saying something like, ‘To anyone who says there have been many versions of this, you know, when it’s done right, no one complains,'” she said. “I think Paul really nailed it here.”
A new challenge for Chalamet
Furthermore, in Wonka, would get the bonus of the classic singing and dancing acting challenge.
“It’s not necessarily what’s hot in terms of behavioral acting and very natural storytelling, but when it’s done right, it’s a lot of fun,” Chalamet said. “And as a member of the public it’s a very generous thing to receive.”
In addition to Pure Imagination and the song Oompa Loompa from the 1971 film, Neil Hannon, frontman of The Divine Comedy, wrote six original songs, while Christopher Gatelli (Hail, Caesar!) supervises the choreographer.
Although Chalamet grew up around dancers (including his sister, mother, and grandmother) and had done musicals in his high school specializing in performing arts, he didn’t fully appreciate the exhaustive rigor of it. He had also starred in great battle sequences, in the arena in Dune and wore chain mail armor in the middle of the mud in The King (The king), also enter to Wonka for months, but I still wasn’t fully prepared for how exhausting a “13th take” of a large-scale musical number would be.
“He’s very modest and I think that’s one of the good things about him,” said King, who has compared Chalamet’s voice to that of Bing Crosby. “I think he’s just fantastic in the movie.”
Chalamet’s co-stars were amazed at how he could be committed to his craft and at the same time fun to work with.
“He’s hard to make fun of,” said Key, who plays the police chief. “He was a good leader, as we like to say in the business, number one on the call sheet…there’s a lot of responsibility.”
Colman agreed, adding that if that person is “unpleasant or difficult to work with, everyone is unhappy.”
In Wonka, However, “everyone was tremendously happy… because he appreciated what everyone did, he knew everyone’s names, he was always on time, he knew his lines and he was kind,” said Colman, who plays the scheming Mrs. Scrubitt. “I felt a little useless in her presence because I’m quite clumsy and I behave quite badly on set.”
The sets, supervised by production designer Nathan Crowley (Interstellar) They are also a great thing to behold. King wanted the city to look like the best in Europe. In total, they built more than 50 sets on three sound stages, a field and an airplane hangar around Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, plus several locations in the United Kingdom, to give the film its whimsical but grounded feel. Lindy Hemming (Paddington) Design the striking costumes.
“It was like they gave us the best train in the world to play on,” King said.
De galn a Oompa-Loompa
Perhaps the most inspired twist of Wonka It is that of Grant, an actor who became world famous for his physical attractiveness, his charm and his romantic leading roles, who plays an Oompa-Loompa.
King had already introduced Grant to a new generation of young people who had him as the failed actor Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2. When she was rereading Charlie and the chocolate factoryHugh’s voice for those little workers came to mind.
“They’re very biting and satirical and funny, but they have a real edge…and they take great delight in the disappearance of these kids,” King said. “I had this vision of Hugh Grant, you know, this tall, with orange skin and green hair. And once that image comes to mind, you have to try to bring it out.”
In recent years, Grant has traded in his romantic lead character for more eccentric roles. It’s what he calls the freak show stage of his career.
“That’s all I can get,” he said.
Grant also calls himself a miserable curmudgeon, which he will say with a straight face, right before saying something completely contradictory. In his interviews, which often go viral, he is witty, ironic and regularly unreliable.
If you really think that The Merry Wives of Windsor It’s a terrible play, if he really likes to spread misery on every set he’s on or if his family really wants him to stop acting because it makes him too bad-tempered, these are truths that only he knows. Some are obvious jokes, others are questionable.
However, when he talks about King and Wonka, and that everything comes from the heart, something fades away.
“One of the things that made those romantic comedies I did with Richard Curtis work, aside from the fact that he’s very good at writing comedy, was that he meant it. He really cared about love and was always falling in love, falling out of love and being traumatized by it. But he meant it,” Grant said. “Paul King means all this. Paddington’s message and her message, you know, family matters, the people you share your chocolate with. It’s not a trite, tacked-on motto. It comes from his heart.”
And it’s easy to believe that Grant, as miserable as he is, actually means it too.
FUENTE: AP
