Taika Waititi Will Make a ‘Willy Wonka’ Animated Series For Netflix
So here’s what I learned this morning: It’s really hard to find a way to rhyme oompa loompa with Taika Waititi.
Nevertheless, the news is out (via The Hollywood Reporter): Taika Waititi, fresh off his Academy Award win for Best Adapted Screenplay, will write, direct, and produce two animated series for Netflix based on the works of Roald Dahl — with the first being a new adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which has previously been turned into a beloved 1971 film starring Gene Wilder, and a somewhat less beloved 2005 remake starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton.
Interestingly, the other animated series that Waititi will create is not based specifically on any Dahl story. Instead, it’s described “as a wholly original take on the Oompa-Loompas, the small song-loving humans who worked in Willy Wonka’s infamous factory.”
More, via THR:
According to Netflix, the shows will retain the quintessential spirit and tone of the original story ‘while building out the world and characters far beyond the pages of the Dahl book for the very first time.’
Waititi has made several films aimed at or starring children, like Boy and Hunt For the Wilderpeople, right on up through his Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit. These films are rarely shy about confronting the darkness that some children face in their lives — which should make him a solid match for Dahl’s warped sense of humor. To date, he’s yet to make an animated feature or project, so that is an interesting wrinkle on the whole thing.
Waititi is still working on the next Thor film, Love and Thunder, which is due in theaters in the fall of 2021. And there was also talk of a live-action Wonka reboot several years ago, directed by Paddington’s Paul King. So far, that project has remained as elusive as an everlasting gobstopper.
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