WONKA - releasing December 15th. 🍫

Look out for EMMA WHITTAKER and BLEU WOODWARD!

Willy Wonka’s back. The chocolatier and torturer of naughty children is getting the prequel treatment in a new film starring Timothée Chalamet, coming to cinemas in December.

Chalamet steps into shoes previously filled by Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005. Rather than retell Dahl’s 1964 book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” writer-director Paul King has imagined a plucky, striving take on the character in what he calls a “companion piece” to the 1971 film.

The director shared that he’d accessed Dahl’s personal archives and read early drafts of the novel, gleaning ideas from there.

“As a writer, obviously I don’t remotely think of myself in the same breath as Roald Dahl,” he said, “but it was very nice to be so inspired by that.”

King, director of the beloved “Paddington” and “Paddington 2,” has cast familiar faces including Sally Hawkins, Tom Davis and Simon Farnaby, alongside Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Keegan-Michael Key and newcomer Calah Lane. And in a casting coup for the ages, the film sees King team up once more with Hugh Grant, this time playing a grumpy, flute-playing Oompa-Loompa.