An answer to a question no one asked? A Wonka origin movie.

[Snarf Zagyg]

Sturgeon's Law still applies. 90% of new things are still crap.

Sturgeon was known for his unbridled optimism and rose-colored glasses.

 

[Willie the Duck]

Cleese apparently announced a Fawlty Towers revival.*

*That will be ... interesting ... considering current culture.

Given three attempts at adapting it, plus an effective spiritual successor, one wonders what there is left to add to the show? Honestly, the specific characters and premise wasn't inherently great (a reason the adaptations failed), it was the specific performances of the cast, which I don't think could return. At some point, Cleese's presence in a scene became a visual shorthand for the ridiculous, and his comedic timing and sensibilities atrophied. I remember him showing up in Third Rock from the Sun probably 25 years ago and he didn't even do anything funny, the audience just thought it was hilarious that he was there in the scene at all/ Since then he's fallen off the deep end of irascible old curmudgeon, which doesn't do well for comedy regardless of the current culture.

 

[Umbran]

Sturgeon was known for his unbridled optimism and rose-colored glasses.

Well, he was a big fish. On his caviar lifestyle, he could afford to be optimistic.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Given three attempts at adapting it, plus an effective spiritual successor, one wonders what there is left to add to the show? Honestly, the specific characters and premise wasn't inherently great (a reason the adaptations failed), it was the specific performances of the cast, which I don't think could return. At some point, Cleese's presence in a scene became a visual shorthand for the ridiculous, and his comedic timing and sensibilities atrophied. I remember him showing up in Third Rock from the Sun probably 25 years ago and he didn't even do anything funny, the audience just thought it was hilarious that he was there in the scene at all/ Since then he's fallen off the deep end of irascible old curmudgeon, which doesn't do well for comedy regardless of the current culture.

Well, I think that you are correct in part. John Cleese is, and always will be, a comedic genius and a titan in the field. But ... the John Cleese of the 1970s or even the 80s is not the John Cleese of today.

I would add that in addition to the fact that the show was necessarily tied into great comedic performances, there is an additional problem. A lot of the humor of the show played into a .... let's think of a way to put this .... a very 70s British sensibility. And that just wouldn't fly today.

Some things are both perfect for the time, but also of the time.

 

[Undrave]

Don't get me wrong- I'm not against reboots (there's lot of examples, but I think most people would say the rebooted Battlestar Galactica was better than the original), and I'm not against new material that re-purposes older material (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was an amazing play before being repackaged with an ampersand into a movie).

But I am somewhat concerned that with the consolidation and commercialization in Hollywood and overall, worldwide, we are seeing that it is getting harder and harder to get original material greenlit ... while re-treads are constantly popping up.

To borrow the quote- Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.

It's really cool when someone does something new with something old. But it's sublime when someone does ... something new.

At the same time, this movie feels like something new someone snuck into the studio by slapping the name Wonka on it and adding the Oompa Loompa. There’s a feeling of live action cartoon to it, a bit like the Paddington movies or even Mouse Hunt, if you’ve ever watched that. The setting in particular looks like it’ll have a certain unreality to it.

It also seems more magical and whimsical than the Mary Poppins sequel or any of the Fantastic Beasts movies

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

At the same time, this movie feels like something new someone snuck into the studio by slapping the name Wonka on it and adding the Oompa Loompa. There’s a feeling of live action cartoon to it, a bit like the Paddington movies or even Mouse Hunt, if you’ve ever watched that. The setting in particular looks like it’ll have a certain unreality to it.

It also seems more magical and whimsical than the Mary Poppins sequel or any of the Fantastic Beasts movies

In fairness, waiting in line at the DMV is more magical and whimsical than the Mary Poppins sequel or the Fantastic Beasts movies.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Filling Gene Wilder's shoes was always going to be a high bar to clear. No offense meant to Timothy Chalamet, but I don't think he's going to manage it, based on the trailer. Wilder's performance is just too good - there's sweetness, earnestness, trickery, malice all dancing behind his eyes, threaded through his words.

Let's see.

Another Wonka movie. Another Beetlejuice movie. A new Starsky and Hutch series. Cleese apparently announced a Fawlty Towers revival.* Dirty Dancing returns to see if we can put baby in the corner in 2024.

*That will be ... interesting ... considering current culture.

Sadly, the line "Whatever you do, don't mention the war!" can still be evergreen.

 

[Ryujin]

At the same time, this movie feels like something new someone snuck into the studio by slapping the name Wonka on it and adding the Oompa Loompa. There’s a feeling of live action cartoon to it, a bit like the Paddington movies or even Mouse Hunt, if you’ve ever watched that. The setting in particular looks like it’ll have a certain unreality to it.

It also seems more magical and whimsical than the Mary Poppins sequel or any of the Fantastic Beasts movies

Well spotted. Same director as "Paddington."

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Prequel? Make Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator into a movie already, or (and I know this is anathema to Hollywood) just make something original. We don't need adaptations of adaptations wherever a little nostalgia can be scrounged up.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That trailer left me thinking there were some things off about what I had seen, but I couldn’t put my finger on the worst of them. It took a reviewer on another website to clarify: there’s a glaring continuity disconnect.

In Wilder’s film, Wonka- nearing the end of his career- states he still hadn’t worked out how to bring his levitating confectionery to market. In the trailer for this film, we see him at the dawn of his career demonstrating the candies in public.

Put differently: The man (Wilder) who spent decades as a mundane but successful chocolatier and built a private wonderland worthy of the Marvel Comics villain Arcade couldn’t find a way to sell the most marvelous creation from his (Chalmet’s) earliest days in the industry.

It beggars the imagination that he couldn’t sell it. If NOTHING else, some government would have considered weaponizing it- at least for spies & special forces soldiers*. Even if Wonka’s personal ethics- odd though they may be (see his dangerous wonderland)- wouldn’t permit such a use, it shouldn’t take a genius of his caliber decades to find a way to sell the experience of short flights on demand.

TL; DR: not going to see this movie.





* and if he didn’t want that to happen, he might have had to destroy his notes and the equipment involved in making it.