Timothée Chalamet says he swam in real chocolate while playing the famed chocolatier Willy Wonka in the upcoming movie musical “Wonka.”
“Too much chocolate,” he said on the stage at CinemaCon, the annual exhibition trade show currently underway at Caesars Palace.
Despite the stomach aches from ingesting too many sweet treats, Chalamet called the role “a dream come true.” Past versions of the character were “cynical,” he says. But “this is a Willy that’s full of joy and hope and desire to become the greatest chocolatier.”
Chalamet is the third actor to don the recognizable top-hat. Gene Wilder memorably portrayed the candy man in the 1971 adaptation, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” and Johnny Depp later embodied the role in 2005 reboot “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” directed by Tim Burton.
Roald Dahl’s popular children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” follows a poor boy who wins a golden ticket to tour the world-famous and heavily guarded chocolate factory run by one Willy Wonka. Since the movie serves as an origin story about Wonka and takes place as the chocolate factory gears up to open, Charlie and company won’t be making an appearance in the musical movie.
But in the extended footage that screened for exhibitors on Tuesday, he finally meets one of the Oompa Loompas — played by Hugh Grant, trapped in a tiny glass jar — who he later hires to keep his factory up and running.
Elsewhere in the trailer, Chalamet sings, dances and spins around a light pole á la “Singin’ in the Rain” as he searches the world for magical recipes. He later attempts to make people fly with his enchanted chocolates, a tease of the many wacky treats — like everlasting gobstoppers or snozzberries — that propelled Wonka to confectionary fame.
Crowds at CinemaCon also got glimpses at Olivia Colman as a Cockney innkeeper, Sally Hawkins as Wonka’s beloved mother and newcomer Calah Lane as the chocolatier’s new friend.
“Every good thing in this world started with a dream,” Wonka says in the trailer. “So you hold onto yours.”
“Paddington” filmmaker Paul King is directing “Wonka,” which is slated to release in theaters on Dec. 15.
Warner Bros. brought its expansive slate to CinemaCon, including previews of “Dune: Part Two,” which also stars Chalamet; as well as the Oprah Winfrey-produced musical adaptation “The Color Purple” and Greta Gerwig’s plastic, fantastic “Barbie.”
Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, the new heads of the Warner Bros. Film Division, introduced the footage of “Wonka” and told theater owners: “It’s our job to bring you the most diverse slate of films of every scale genre. It’s our personal directive for the future and we are absolutely committed to delivering on that promise.”
