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| Wonka | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Paul King |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Paul King |
| Based on | Characters by Roald Dahl |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Chung Chung-hoon |
| Edited by | Mark Everson |
| Music by |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 116 minutes[2] |
| Countries |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $125 million[3] |
| Box office | $572.4 million[4][5] |
Wonka is a 2023 musical fantasy film directed by Paul King, who co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Farnaby based on a story by King. It tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, featuring his early days as a chocolatier.[6] The film stars Timothée Chalamet as the title character, with an ensemble cast including Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant. It is the third live-action film based on Dahl's novel, following Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
Development began when Warner Bros. Pictures reacquired the rights to the character in October 2016 and announced that the film would be an origin story. While it tells a standalone story with no connection to prior adaptations, King developed Wonka to exist as a "companion piece" to the 1971 film by reprising some of the music, thematic elements, and visual design of the Oompa Loompas.[7] In May 2021, Chalamet was confirmed to portray Wonka, and the supporting cast was announced in September of that year. Filming began in the United Kingdom in September, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, in Watford, as well as Oxford, Lyme Regis, Bath, St Albans, and at the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park, London.[8] The film's original songs were written by Neil Hannon, and its original score by Joby Talbot.
Wonka premiered in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre on November 28, 2023. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 8 and in the United States on December 15 by Warner Bros. Pictures with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution. It received generally positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $572 million worldwide against a $125 million budget, ranking as the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2023. It received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film, and Chalamet was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Plot[edit]
Willy Wonka, an aspiring magician, inventor, and chocolatier, arrives in Europe to establish his chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet. After using up his meager savings, he is coerced to stay at Mrs. Scrubitt's boardinghouse by her henchman, Bleacher. Despite orphan Noodle's warning about reading the fine print, Wonka signs the contract because he is illiterate. To pay them off, Wonka attempts to sell "hoverchocs", chocolates that make people fly, facing mockery from three rival chocolatiers who call the chief of police to confiscate his earnings for selling chocolates without owning a proper shop.
Unable to pay the expensive fees imposed on him by the contract, Wonka is captured and forced to work in a launderette for Mrs. Scrubitt alongside other captives, Abacus Crunch, Piper Benz, Lottie Bell, and Larry Chucklesworth. Wonka escapes with the help of Noodle after they trick Bleacher and Scrubbit into falling in love with each other. Wonka promises Noodle a lifetime supply of chocolates, and she promises to teach him how to read. Wonka tells Noodle that his affinity for chocolate stems from his late mother. He also mentions the theft of his chocolates by an enigmatic orange man who has been stealing them for years. To produce his signature chocolate, Wonka and Noodle travel to the local zoo, milking Abigail the giraffe. After a run in with the chief of police, Wonka and Noodle learn from Abacus of the "chocolate cartel" who work together to stow their chocolate in a vault underneath the cathedral; the cartel leader Arthur Slugworth had previously fired Abacus as his accountant. Wonka and his new friends embark on a chocolate-selling crusade to alleviate their debts while using sewage tunnels underneath the city to evade Scrubitt, the police, and the chief. Wonka encounters an Oompa Loompa named Lofty after trapping him in a jar; the Oompa Loompa seeks reimbursement for the cocoa beans that Wonka unknowingly stole from Loompaland years earlier under Lofty's watch, resulting in Lofty's exile.
Wonka opens his dream chocolate store. The chief and the chocolate cartel, who are now unable to arrest him since he has a legitimate shop, reveal Wonka's shop to Scrubitt and Bleacher. They poison his chocolates with ingredients that cause hair to grow and change color. As a result, the shop's furious customers ransack Wonka's store and cause a fire that destroys the establishment. Wonka agrees to the cartel's offer to leave town by ship to pay off everyone's debts. All of Scrubbitt's captives are freed, except Noodle, as Slugworth had paid Scrubitt to keep her there indefinitely. On the boat with Lofty, Wonka learns that Noodle is Slugworth's niece, daughter of his late brother Zebedee, just before they are forced to jump into the sea and swim to shore after learning the boat is rigged to explode. Wonka rescues Noodle with the help of the group and they devise a strategy to obtain the cartel's incriminating account book.
Wonka and Noodle infiltrate the cartel's base. They are confronted by the cartel leaders, with Slugworth revealing that he sent Noodle, who was reported dead to her mother, Dorothy, to Scrubitt in order to eliminate her claim to the family fortune. Wonka gives Slugworth the jar of hoverchocs to give to Lofty if he finds him. The cartel then locks Wonka and Noodle in the vault and attempts to drown them in chocolate, but Lofty rescues them and they expose the cartel's misdeeds to the authorities and the public. Wonka's friends release the cartel's chocolate reserve through a fountain, now laced with Wonka's unique ingredients, ruining the cartel's enterprise. The cartel meets their downfall as they float away, and the police arrest the corrupt chief. Wonka unwraps the last chocolate bar his mother had given him, discovering a golden paper with a message saying 'what matters is who you share the chocolate with', so he shares it with his friends. He later helps Noodle in reuniting with Dorothy at the library, settles his debt with Lofty, and finds an abandoned castle for sale where he builds and opens his very own chocolate factory, with Lofty joining him as a tasting chef.
In a mid-credits scene, Lofty narrates how Wonka’s friends returned to their old lives and shows Scrubitt and Bleacher being arrested after their attempt to eliminate the evidence of sabotaging Wonka's shop by drinking it backfires.