I read somewhere that Gene Wilder insisted on doing his introduction as Willy Wonka that way. The director didn't want to do it but Wilder insisted on it, because it would leave audiences guessing for the rest of the movie about whether or not he's lying. I'd say it worked.
I read somewhere that Gene Wilder insisted on doing his introduction as Willy Wonka that way. The director didn't want to do it but Wilder insisted on it, because it would leave audiences guessing for the rest of the movie about whether or not he's lying. I'd say it worked.
I had to look it up; the director is someone named Mel Stuart, who seems to have been a sort of journeyman. Did a bunch of "Making of the President" flicks in the before-CNN-times when people went to that sort of stuff. TV movies, plus the awesomely named "Call of the Wild - Sex in the Animal Kingdom" in 2003.
Why the producers of a Roald Dahl fantasy novel would tap somebody so normie to direct the picture I have NO idea. But I can totally imagine Stuart being completely baffled by what Wilder was doing.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" says that Dahl - who wrote the screenplay for the film - didn't like that the producers/director made the flick about the Wonka character instead of his kid protagonist.
Which just goes to show that great writers can be irrationally wedded to their creations, because who the hell wants more of Peter Ostrum playing the gruesomely loveable little Charlie Bucket when you can have Gene Wilder going mad, bad, and dangerous to know as the lunatic candymaker?
I read somewhere that Gene Wilder insisted on doing his introduction as Willy Wonka that way. The director didn't want to do it but Wilder insisted on it, because it would leave audiences guessing for the rest of the movie about whether or not he's lying. I'd say it worked.
I had to look it up; the director is someone named Mel Stuart, who seems to have been a sort of journeyman. Did a bunch of "Making of the President" flicks in the before-CNN-times when people went to that sort of stuff. TV movies, plus the awesomely named "Call of the Wild - Sex in the Animal Kingdom" in 2003.
Why the producers of a Roald Dahl fantasy novel would tap somebody so normie to direct the picture I have NO idea. But I can totally imagine Stuart being completely baffled by what Wilder was doing.
Interestingly, the Wikipedia entry for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" says that Dahl - who wrote the screenplay for the film - didn't like that the producers/director made the flick about the Wonka character instead of his kid protagonist.
Which just goes to show that great writers can be irrationally wedded to their creations, because who the hell wants more of Peter Ostrum playing the gruesomely loveable little Charlie Bucket when you can have Gene Wilder going mad, bad, and dangerous to know as the lunatic candymaker?