'Wonka' would earn Chocolate Factory author blessings

Wonka filmmaker Paul King said the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl would approve his take on the famed character.

The director weighed in on the subject amid the press preview of the trailer, "(He) is a very interesting, beguiling character and it seemed really interesting to dive a little deeper into him and try and come up with something that perhaps Roald Dahl might have approved of if he'd ever tried to write a prequel."

"('Wonka') tells the wild and wonderful story of Willy Wonka... what chocolate means to him and why he's so driven to become this extraordinary chocolate maker," King explained amid the trailer screening, adding he aimed to stick with Dahl's story when he penned the script.

In a chat with EW, the King also added he avoided reinvention of the popular 1971's Gene Wilder Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

"I didn't want to reinvent those things 'cause it felt like that '71 movie had come up with these incredibly enduring, iconic looks."

Adding, "What I wanted this movie to be was like a companion piece to that movie. If you imagine those people in that world 25 years earlier, that was my starting process. Eventually, he would grow into that person and that factory."

Wonka will land in theatres on 15 December 2023.