Tim Burton’s 2005 film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” isn’t deeply beloved — anyone you ask will say they prefer Mel Stuart’s 1971 adaptation, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” much better — it was nonetheless a massive success. It was made for a hefty $150 million, but earned an impressive $476 million at the box office, taking most everyone by surprise. It was also better-reviewed than detractors may remember, fetching an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “Charlie” was colorful and semi-surreal, utilizing extensive CGI to realize a nightmare carnival rendition of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Deep Roy played hundreds of Oompa-Loompas, and Danny Elfman wrote music for Dahl’s original songs, printed in his original 1964 novel.
Johnny Depp played the unusual, reclusive, childlike Willy Wonka, deliberately evoking Carol Channing (in vocal inflection) and inadvertently channeling Michael Jackson (in demeanor). Depp’s performance is vaguely off-putting, but one cannot argue that it isn’t striking.
And it seems that Michael Jackson himself was once sniffing around Warner Bros., hoping to play Willy Wonka. Indeed, Jackson evidently petitioned Warner Bros. so aggressively, it resulted in a full-length “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” concept album that has, as of this writing, never seen the light of day. One can see why Jackson would want to play Willy Wonka, as he sort of lived the Wonka lifestyle in real life, owning his own amusement park, the Neverland Ranch, where he and his young guests would never have to grow up. (The 2005 film was made after Jackson had already been accused multiple times of molesting young children.)
Jackson’s assertive courting of Willy Wonka is detailed in Randall Sullivan’s 2012 biography “Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson.”
