Nope, I didn’t know that. I’m not a candy eater and I have only had a daughter for the past 5 years (she doesn’t eat much candy either). You live and you learn.
That’s how I feel about it myself (and about most remakes). I do plan to watch it myself, though, if only so I can bitch more effectively.
I think it’ll be fine, and it’ll make a truckload o’ cash.
Ya gotta remember, it’s been a long, long time since the original. Okay, maybe just a long time. But it’s a new generation of moviegoers out there now, kids who haven’t (perhaps) seen the original. This is why remakes are best no more than once a generation. I’d have to think that the majority of people who wind up seeing this one won’t have seen the first in the theater, and if they’ve seen it at all it’ll be within a few weeks or months of this remake. Meaning that they wouldn’t have this long, pure, rose-colored memory of what the movie Should Be.
I’m aware of that. I also hope that in conjunction with the movie, they bring back the Ommpa-Loompas candy, which was sort of half-M & M, half-Reese’s Piece kind of thing. Those were great.
I liked the idea of Nick Cage as Wonka, but Depp’ll be OK.
(LOVE WALKEN! But that would be too good!)
And in one of the linked threads, someone made the great suggestion of casting Gene Wilder as Gramdpa Joe.
Now, some other wishes I have-
throw Brian Warner a bone & let him do one of the old Wonka songs (Candy Man or Pure Imagination) on the final credits (btw, I heard that he himself started the rumor that he was going to play WW as he loves the movie so much);
get Nina Gordon & the new Veruca Salt to do some of the other old songs, either together (if possible) or seperately, for the opening & closing titles.
One of the biggest things I liked about the original as an adult was the dark side of Wonka. He had a sadistic trait and seemed both amused and uncaring when the kids started disappearing.
However, I’ve heard that in the Depp/Burton one they are making a “kinder,gentler” Wonka who has no mischievous side to him.
Doesn’t sound like it will appeal to adults (myself).
“The way your father saw it, that everlasting gobstopper was your birthright. And he’d be damned if any Slugworth got his yellow hands on it. So he hid that gobstopper in the one place he new they’d never look: his ass. For five years he hid that gobstopper, up his ass…”
Me neither, but I’ll believe it when I see it. I think they’ll have to throw in some of the darker stuff–it just isn’t Willy Wonka without it.
I’m looking forward to this movie–the original is one of my all-time favorites, and to this day I still have a serious thing for Gene Wilder as Wonka, so it will have some pretty big shoes to fill. But I think Depp just might be able to pull it off.
I do think that the perfect choice for a modern-day Wonka would have been Alan Cumming, though. If you don’t believe me, check out his Fegan Floop in “Spy Kids.”
Hampshire wrote
That is funny-ass. So to speak.
Another Wonka fan chiming in here. I loved the movie as a kid, and well, I still love it now. Now, unlike most of the posters, I hope they do keep it as a musical. “Pure Imagination” is, IMO, one of the best songs and best scenes in the whole movie. It just can’t BE WW without that song!
I love Tim Burton, but I’m not a big Depp fan. I agree that Walken or Klein would make excellent Wonkas. I look forward to seeing this movie purely out of curiosity’s sake; but I really don’t have high hopes for it.
Am I the only one who loved the book as a child, and was somewhat underwhelmed upon finally (many years later) seeing the Gene Wilder movie? I suppose it was a fine movie, but it sure wasn’t the same as the book…
So I’m looking forward to this very much.