After Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, it is the turn of the young French-American actor Timothée Chalamet to play Willy Wonka, the zany and burlesque chocolate maker imagined by Roald Dahl, in a prequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The film, which is likely to be called Wonka, is a musical about the chocolate maker's youth, in which we will discover the dancing and singing talents of the actor who won an Oscar in 2018 for his role in Call me by your name. So there will be no Charlie Bucket, the young hero of the novel around which the first film adaptations by Mel Stuart (1971) and Tim Burton (2005) were centred. Directed by Paul King (Paddington), the film should go into production in September for a release date in March 2023.
The young actor has three new films lined up for release this year. In Denis Villeneuve's new adaptation of Dune, he plays Paul Atreides, the main character in the world's best-selling science fiction novel, alongside Zendaya. He is starring in the highly anticipated The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson's tenth feature film soon to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival 2021, alongside Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Léa Seydoux. Timothée Chalamet is also part of the cast of Adam McKay's disaster movie Don't look up, soon to be released exclusively on Netflix.
Wonka, directed by Paul King, set for release in March 2023.
