So shines a good deed in a weary world – Call Me By Your Name and Little Women star Timothée Chalamet has been cast as Willy Wonka in a new film delving into the origin story of the world’s best known chocolatier.
Directed by Paddington director Paul King, the all-singing all-dancing prequel Wonka will focus on a young Willy Wonka. Based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it’ll tell the story of how Wonka came to set up his confectionary-filled world of pure imagination.
Like Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory – the 1971 film which famously starred Gene Wilder as the chocolate factory owner – Wonka is returning to similar musical roots, and Chalamet is set to perform in multiple numbers. David Heyman, who produced all eight Harry Potter films, will produce the film, based on a script by Simon Rich.
Wonka hits cinema screens on March 17, 2023 – and in the meantime Timothée has a lot of other projects on his plate. Chalamet’s also starring in Wes Anderson’s forthcoming new film The French Dispatch, as well as a hotly-anticipated adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi epic Dune.
Eagle-eyed viewers will also note that Chalamet’s entry to the Roald Dahl world is not his first notorious encounter with a giant peach. In 2017 the American actor’s breakthrough moment came when he appeared in Luca Guadagnino's Oscar-winning film Call Me by Your Name – a romantic drama featuring a sultry encounter with a piece of fruit.