Last month it was announced that Warner Bros. is developing a new Willy Wonka movie, which will explore the early adventures of Roald Dahl’s iconic character.
The project is been spearheaded by David Heyman (Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), and the producer has been chatting to Slash Film about the film, and how it will feature an original story, rather than any material from Dahl’s books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
“It’s not a remake,” states Heyman. “They’ve done two films, quite different. But it’s possibly an origin story. We’re just in the early stages of it, working with a writer called Simon Rich, which is wonderful. I’m a huge Roald Dahl fan. I’ve been trying to work on Dahl material for quite some time but they’re all tied up. So when this was suggested, I didn’t take a moment to pause and want to jump right in.”
“It’s challenging because you don’t have Dahl, you don’t have a Dahl book, and yet you have a Dahl character,” he continued. “But I think there’s a lot in his character that suggests who he is and also where he might come from or what his childhood or his middle age might have been like. So we’re exploring that. We’re discussing it. We’re in the very early stages and very excited about what lies ahead.”
Are you excited about exploring the origin of Willy Wonka? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Originally published November 9, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
