{"id":45373,"date":"2024-02-07T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T08:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1987617"},"modified":"2024-02-07T09:41:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T08:41:45","slug":"wonkas-paul-king-on-the-characters-origins-he-had-a-life-beyond-charlie","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/wonkas-paul-king-on-the-characters-origins-he-had-a-life-beyond-charlie\/","title":{"rendered":"Wonka\u2019s Paul King on the character\u2019s origins: \u201cHe had a life beyond Charlie\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

The acclaimed film starring Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is nominated for Outstanding British Film at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards. <\/p>

By Sarfraz Manzoor\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 07 February 2024 at 08:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Wonka writer and director, Paul King, is reflecting on the film\u2019s success following its nomination for Outstanding British Film at the BAFTAs later this month. So, how does it feel to have made a film that has earned more than half a billion dollars at the box office? \u201cWell, it\u2019s certainly an eye watering sum of money,\u201d he says, adding \u2013 \u201cit\u2019s a lot more than the Paddington films [which he also wrote and directed] combined, so it\u2019s definitely new territory for me and very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

When King was first offered Wonka<\/a> he was apprehensive but changed his mind after returning to the original books. When he started \u2013 with his writing partner Simon Farnaby \u2013 to imagine an origin story for Willy Wonka they were helped by having access to the Roald Dahl archive. \u201cThere\u2019s pages and pages of him trying different paragraphs and rewriting each time in longhand and Willy Wonka was a character he came back to time and again,\u201d King reveals. \u201cHe was obviously aware that he had a life beyond Charlie.\u201d<\/p>

Revisiting the books also shed new light for King on the Oompa Loompas which led to the genius casting of Hugh Grant as Lofty<\/a>. \u201cI think he\u2019s one of the funniest people on the planet,\u201d King says of Grant. \u201cAs I started reading the Oompa Loompa\u2019s songs which are very sardonic and cutting and judgmental, I began to hear Hugh\u2019s voice and then it wasn\u2019t a huge leap from there, to imagine him looking like an Oompa Loompa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Timoth\u00e9e\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet and Hugh Grant in Wonka.<\/span><\/figcaption> Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Grant of course, also starred in King\u2019s Paddington as a master villain so duly agreed to bring King\u2019s vision to life. Both films share are, in the best sense, family films. \u201cWe try to craft something that everyone can enjoy equally and in the same way,\u201d explains King. \u201cI always think about Charlie Chaplin as a real touchstone because I found those films really funny when I saw them as a kid, and I still find them equally funny now. That\u2019s what the great family films do, it is what we aspire to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The box office success suggests it is an aspiration he has fulfilled but having made such a colossal amount of money surely, I suggest, he can\u2019t also want to win a BAFTA, that\u2019s just greedy. \u201cI\u2019m probably a deeply greedy person \u2013 I want everyone in the world to love the movie and take it to their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n