‘Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination…’
For director Paul King, star Timothée Chalamet and the rest of the ‘Wonka’ crew, that world of pure imagination was, well… Watford. The Galeries Gourmet and the wider world of the new Roald Dahl-inspired movie was painstakingly and grandly constructed on sound stages and the back lot at Leavesden. Once home to Hogwarts in ‘Harry Potter’, Warner Bros.’ HQ outside of London reverberated with the sounds of Willy Wonka’s song-filled odyssey from humble travelling chocolatier to confectionary king.
But as ‘Wonka’ production designer Nathan Crowley tells us, the creation of the movie’s fairy tale world involved as many secret ingredients as one of Willy Wonka’s Hoverchocs. Little bridges, exits and doorways at Leavesden led to a host of real-life locations, with invisible cuts, VFX and matte work extending the world seamlessly in unexpected ways and to unexpected places.
‘The town’s name is purposely unscripted,’ he says. ‘We scouted lots of places in Europe but none of them touched this idea of what a Roald Dahl city might be, so we decided to build it on the backlot at Leavesden,’ he says. ‘The architects of Georgian London and medieval Bruges would be very upset.’
We asked the Oscar-nominated production designer to share the story behind ‘Wonka’s real-life UK locations.
Bridge of Sighs, Oxford
A key part of ‘Wonka’s world-building was the university town of Oxford – an old favourite from period dramas and college coming-of-age stories (see: ‘Saltburn’). This time, Radcliffe Camera and Hertford Bridge – aka the Bridge of Sighs – make memorable cameo appearances. 'We used Oxford as connective tissue,’ explains Crowley. With director Paul King, he travelled to Oxford in pre-production to scout for locations. King’s fancy was tickled by the comic potential of the famous, low-lying bridge. ‘We needed a gag and Paul was like: “Hey, the giraffe can duck [under it]!”’
Mapledurham, Berkshire
Once home to Michael Caine World War II thriller ‘The Eagle Has Landed’, this sleepy country village is back on the big screen courtesy of ‘Wonka’. ‘We filmed a lot of the flashbacks and childhood stuff here,’ says Crowley. ‘You’ve got the Thames and canals there, with this beautiful willow tree, so we had some scenes of Willy and his mother.’
Lyme Regis, Dorset
At the beginning of the movie, Willy Wonka’s cargo ship docks in the town’s harbour – a scene which was filmed in the Dorset harbour town of Lyme Regis, and sent Timothée Chalamet in the footsteps of Meryl Streep in 1981 romance ’The French Lieutenant’s Woman’. ‘I knew we had to open the film at a port in the fictional Roald Dahl city,’ remembers Crowley, ‘and I've always liked Lyme Regis because of “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”. ‘There’s something about that stone Cobb (the harbour wall) and the way it curves that’s beautiful.’
The Colonnade, Bath
Beyond the sets at Leavesden, much of the movie was filmed at Oxford and Bath – which in turn fed back into the set design itself (Bath stone was a big feature). ‘When Willy walks down to Scrubbit and Bleacher along the water, that's the Bath Colonnade next to the Avon,’ says Crowley. The little humpback bridge across to Scrubbit and Bleacher, meanwhile, was built on the back lot. ‘As a production designer, you have a jigsaw puzzle of things to connect.’
St Paul’s Cathedral, London
Director Paul King filmed ‘Paddington 2’ scenes in St Paul’s and he was back again to film ‘Wonka’s secret entrance to the chocolate cartel’s base. ‘It has such a hard-edged elegance that fitted the chocolate cartel,’ says Crowley. ‘We built the exterior King's Door – which is absolutely enormous – on the back lot at Leavesden, but when you go through the doors, you’re in St Paul’s. The confessional booth is in St Paul’s and we rebuilt it [on set] with the elevator.’
Rivoli Ballroom, Brockley
South East London’s 1950s Rivoli Ballroom is fast becoming a movie star in its own right. To add to appearances in Marvel’s ‘The Avengers’ and Tom Hardy gangster flick ‘Legend’ it can now add a cameo in ‘Wonka’ – look out for it in a post-credits scene where it hosts a comeback gig by struggling stand-up Larry Chucklesworth. ‘We were just there for a day,’ notes Crowley. ‘It's a long way to take a crew but it's a pretty good location.’
Another London location in ‘Wonka’ is nearby Eltham Palace, an old ‘Poirot’ haunt. ‘We used it for Slugworth’s office and the secret ledgers,’ says Crowley. ‘It's good fun mixing locations. The trick is not to let the audience get distracted by the design.’
Verulamium Park, St. Albans
In the movie, Willy and his sidekick Noodle (Calah Lane) hatch a plan involving a trip to the zoo. It gave King and Crowley the chance to design wide shots of the zoo, fairground and a snow-blanketed cityscape by night. St Albans’ expansive parkland was the perfect spot for the job. ‘The draw in St Albans was the lake,’ says Crowley. ‘We were there for, like, two days – we built the zoo itself on a soundstage and the [Galeries Gourmet] roof at Cardington Airfield, where we did the ‘Batman’ films – it’s 140 feet high!’’ In good news for St Albans’ locals, according to the BBC the town received £41,000 as a location fee.
What are the early reactions to the film?
So far, ‘Wonka’s confections have mostly been met with rapturous praise. Time Out’s own review calls it ‘full of charm, hissable villains and pure imagination’, while Vanity Fair notes that there’s still some Roald Dahl edge amid all the gorgeousness and heart, calling it ‘a film decidedly aimed at children that nonetheless incorporates some dark matter’. Singling out director Paul King and his co-writer Simon Farnaby, The Guardian hails it ‘an absolute Christmas treat’, calling it ‘spectacular, imaginative, sweet-natured and funny’. The Hollywood Reporter was less seduced by the movie’s upbeat mood, though, finding that ‘so much wide-eyed optimism becomes wearying’.
‘Wonka’ is in UK cinemas Fri Dec 8.