Timothée Chalamet Feared ‘Wonka’ Might Be a ‘Cynical Money Grab,’ but a ‘Very Clever’ Opening Song Proved Him Wrong: There’s ‘Skepticism’ Over Remakes
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Timothée Chalamet admitted to GamesRadar+ that he originally worried “Wonka” might be a “cynical money grab” given Hollywood studios’ recent trend of rebooting every bit of IP it possibly can.
Chalamet was offered the chance to lead the film, which is a musical prequel that tells the story of how Willy Wonka became a world famous chocolatier. “Like many people, when there are remakes, I feel very protective over the original character and versions you love,” Chalamet said. “Your eyebrows go up with skepticism about [whether] this is a legitimate, worthwhile story or a cynical money grab.
But I was reading the first three pages of the script, and the song ‘Hat Full of Dreams’ was in there.” “Hat Full of Dreams” is the film’s opening musical number.
Chalamet said “the lyrics were so clever” on the page that he immediately stopped worrying about the film being a cash grab even without music to accompany the song. “[It’s] about this young Willy, who was definitively not the crazy, cynical, kind of jaded, brain-fried version that we see in the two prior films but was very hopeful, young, ambitious, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer, maybe a little naive,” Chalamet said. “That’s very clever.” “Wonka” director Paul King revealed earlier this year that Chalamet did not even have to audition for the role of Willy Wonka.
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