According to The Evening Standard’s Tom Davidson, Paul King’s upcoming “Wonka” has a budget of around $125 million. That’s a lot for such a risk-taking project.
This is supposed to be a prequel to “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” tackling the early life of Willy Wonka. The rest of the cast is noteworthy: Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Grant and Keegan Michael-Key.
Timothee Chalamet stars in the film and he’ll probably have a very busy year between this, “Dune: Part Two” and the soon-to-be-shot Bob Dylan biopic “”A Complete Unknown.” The kid is hot right now.
King’s “Wonka” test-screened in December to good notices. Jeff Sneider, ViewerAnon and Big Screen Leaks all backed up the positive intel.
The film test-screened 15 months before its December 2023 release. In it, Chalamet plays the titular Wonka. However, the big lure for me here is King, who made those two fantastic “Paddington” movies.
“Wonka” is banking on holiday audiences to show up as it opens just around the week before Christmas on December 15th, 2023. Will people show up for this thing?