This reeks of something so hollow

[Buccaneer]

from imdb.com

Movie funnyman Gene Wilder has hailed Johnny Depp as a "magical" choice to play Willy Wonka in upcoming film Charlie And The Chocolate Factory - weeks after attacking Depp's casting in the movie remake. Wilder, who played Wonka in the original 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, recently accused director Tim Burton of remaking the Roald Dahl fantasy for "pointless" financial gain. And despite complaining Depp would not be able to improve upon his portrayal of Wonka, Wilder has now declared Depp is the perfect choice for the film. He says, "If I were going to cast the movie, I would cast Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka because I think he is wonderful. Mysterious - always - and magical."

How much do you think Wilder was bribed or arm twisted to say something that rings very hollow? Whatever one thinks of Depp's portrayal, he can't go from citicizing it to saying it's a "perfect choice".

I know we've discussed this several times but after seeing the clips again, it just turns me off. I think I would be embarassed or at least uncomforable to be watching that. It may be a Oscar-winning performance and truer to Dahl (and I'm not hung up on the original which had it's place in time), but it just turns me off to not want to pay money to see it.

[korme]

Well I'm going to see it because Johnny Depp is the mmmmmmmman. I will compare it to the old. I will tell which I found to be better.

[Buccaneer]

The mmmmmmmman for what?

I understand the need for comparison because unlike most 30+ year old remakes, the newer generations have loved the original. But still, do you think it will be one of those movies that the critics will love but the public will not accept it?

[SeaSquirrel]

Depp is the greatest actor of our generation.

[Tigercat]

Gene is a complex man, it wouldn't surprise me to see him take a somewhat complex stance on the film, not thinking they could improve on the original, but thinking that Depp is the best actor out there right now to play Wonka. After watching the few interviews hes given over the last decade, I don't think he would be one to kiss anyones ass for any price.

I like Depp normally, but watching the clips his Wonka just doesn't appeal to me. I would love to see the original Wonka only darker. I always thought that the original tried to be dark children's fantasy and fluff children's fantasy at the same time, and that combo just never worked for me even as a kid.

[korme]

Originally Posted by SeaSquirrel

Depp is the greatest actor of our generation.

2nd to Brad Pitt. But JD is the man.

Bucc, I agree, I really do like the first one, which is unusual for an old ('71) film.

[Raiders Army]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

2nd to Brad Pitt. But JD is the man.

Bucc, I agree, I really do like the first one, which is unusual for an old ('71) film.

I dunno...Jean Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren were both pretty good actors as well. Ever see Universal Soldier?

Seriously, Tim Burton hasn't made a movie that I like, including Batman.

[Neuqua]

Depp is easily my favorite actor but even I am kind of suspicious in how much I am really going to enjoy the new movie.

Then again, I have not even seen the original one with Wilder so I guess I won't have any preconcieved ideas on how the whole story/characters should play out anyway.

[Franklinnoble]

This thread is gayer than a Flintstones marathon.

[SackAttack]

Nobody else thinks he may have been speaking ironically, knowing people would take him at face value?

[mhass]

Originally Posted by Franklinnoble

This thread is gayer than a Flintstones marathon.

It WAY WAY gayer than that.

[Neon_Chaos]

I too, believe that Johnny Depp is probably one of the best actors of our generation. I've got him right next to Sean Penn and Mel Gibson (sue me, I love The Patriot).

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Then again, I have not even seen the original one with Wilder

Wow.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Depp is easily my favorite actor but even I am kind of suspicious in how much I am really going to enjoy the new movie.

Then again, I have not even seen the original one with Wilder so I guess I won't have any preconcieved ideas on how the whole story/characters should play out anyway.

OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPA DEE DO!

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPA DEE DO!

QuikSand's got another puzzle for you?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

OOMPA LOOMPA DOOMPA DEE DO!

"Grunka Lunka Dunkity Darmed Guards"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

SI

[Chas in Cinti]

Originally Posted by SeaSquirrel

Depp is the greatest actor of our generation.

He's ok; but I think John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Tim Roth, and Ethan Hawke are all better actors. I just can't think of a Depp film where I "melted" into the movie... where I got lost in the story.

Eh well... we'll see...

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Mel Gibson (sue me, I love The Patriot).

The Patriot is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Pretty unrealistic, and historically inaccurate to boot.

[Ksyrup]

I found this pretty funny....



Jacko and the "Chocolate Factory"
By Joal RyanWed Jul 6, 8:12 PM ET

The longish black hair. The pale skin. The ornate suit jacket. The--how should we say?--less than traditional adult male speaking voice.

That is fabled candymaker Willy Wonka as embodied by Johnny Depp in director Tim Burton's new take on the children's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

One problem: "I think the casual viewer is going to see Michael Jackson."

So says Patrick Lee, news editor of online's Sci Fi Wire. And chances are the casual viewer wouldn't disagree.

"It's very scary," laughs Houston-based blogger Laurence Simon.

Like other moviegoers, Simon made the Depp-Jackson-Wonka connection almost instantly when he saw the Chocolate Factory trailer. An offhanded remark last month on his blog, This Blog Is Full of Crap (IsFullofCrap.com), about how much he wasn't looking forward to Burton's film led one commentator to crack, "What's the problem...? Don't have the stomach for Michael Jackson and the Chocolate Factory?"

The properly titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory opens July 15. In a summer dominated by bad buzz about the less than blockbuster box office, it is one of Warner Bros.' brightest hopes, along with Batman Begins and The Dukes of Hazzard.

Having one of its prized properties--much less, a PG-rated kids' fantasy--linked to a fallen pop star with longish black hair, pale skin, a whisper for a speaking voice, a penchant for military garb and a recent acquittal on child-molestation charges is likely not what the Hollywood studio had in mind when it turned Burton and company loose on author Roald Dahl's beloved, if preternaturally creepy, tale.

And, according to Depp, who openly copped to stealing riffs from rocker Keith Richards for his turn as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, it is absolutely not what the actor had in mind when he was conjuring the eccentric first brought to the big screen by Gene Wilder in 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Children-show hosts like Captain Kangaroo and Mr. Rogers, these are the innocuous sorts who inspired Depp's Wonka, he has said.

"Everyone is entitled to think what they want," Depp said last week in a news conference in Nassau, Bahamas, "even while being violently wrong."

Wrong or no, the suspicions abound. At that press conference, Lee says the Jackson question came up "a lot."

Lee, for one, is more willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the filmmakers, perhaps because he's seen the movie in its entirety. "The nature of the character Willy Wonka is not Michael Jackson," he says. "Willy Wonka hates children--that there sets him apart from Michael Jackson."

Box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian also has seen the film. Depp's Wonka, he says, "comes off more as Mr. Rogers than Michael Jackson."

If the trailer is creeping out audiences, says Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., then that might not be such a bad thing for the film's box office. Dahl's tale of gluttony, greed and Oompa Loompas, after all, has never been confused for a Disney fairy tale. As such, the trippier the trailer, the potentially more intrigued the audience.

"They have come to expect the unexpected with Johnny Depp," says Dergarabedian. "Were it another actor, maybe it wouldn't come off as well."

The last time Depp arguably veered into Jackson territory, in Finding Neverland, the 2004 biopic about big-kid-at-heart Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, the actor earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

As long as Depp doesn't earn sustained unwanted comparisons to Jackson in Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas likely will go along their merry, vaguely unsettling way.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

One problem: "I think the casual viewer is going to see Michael Jackson."

So says Patrick Lee, news editor of online's Sci Fi Wire. And chances are the casual viewer wouldn't disagree.

Holy crap. I think that puts the finger on why I was so unsettled to see how Depp looked as Wonka. The image put me in mind of a child molester, or something similarly creepy, but I think maybe subconsciously I was making the Jackson connection and not realizing it.

That is funny.

Damned creepy, but funny nonetheless.

[stevew]

FWIW, the first think i thought of when i saw Depp was that he looked and awful lot like Jacko.

[korme]

Originally Posted by Chas in Cinti

He's ok; but I think John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Tim Roth, and Ethan Hawke are all better actors. I just can't think of a Depp film where I "melted" into the movie... where I got lost in the story.

Eh well... we'll see...

Good call on Tim Robbins, vastly underrated. No better pitcher than Ebby Calvin Laloosh, no better inmate than Andy Dufresne, and no better 2 minute part in a movie than waving to people in Top Gun.

[RendeR]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Good call on Tim Robbins, vastly underrated. No better pitcher than Ebby Calvin Laloosh, no better inmate than Andy Dufresne, and no better 2 minute part in a movie than waving to people in Top Gun.

Its Supposed to be EPPY not Ebby, unless I am savagely loosing my memory.

If yer gonna name names, at least name the right names =)

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by stevew

the first think i thought of

This is going to be the title of my first CD.

[korme]

I did. It's Ebby. I watch Bull Durham like every 2 weeks.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

I did. It's Ebby. I watch Bull Durham like every 2 weeks.

Man, I wish you were a girl, i'd be all over that.

[weinstein7]

Originally Posted by Shorty3281

Good call on Tim Robbins, vastly underrated. No better pitcher than Ebby Calvin Laloosh, no better inmate than Andy Dufresne, and no better 2 minute part in a movie than waving to people in Top Gun.

Except that he threw like a girl. Give me Rickie Vaughn any day of the week!

And Tim Robbins was in Top Gun? Never noticed that one.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Chas in Cinti

He's ok; but I think John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Tim Roth, and Ethan Hawke are all better actors. I just can't think of a Depp film where I "melted" into the movie... where I got lost in the story.

Eh well... we'll see...

I think Philip Seymour Hoffman or Don Cheadle are probably better than any of those dudes.

And the Brad Pitt stuff is just homoerotic nonsense from Shorty.

[Chas in Cinti]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

I think Philip Seymour Hoffman or Don Cheadle are probably better than any of those dudes.

And the Brad Pitt stuff is just homoerotic nonsense from Shorty.

Good call on both of those guys... Don Cheadle is definitely another favorite of mine. Robert Downey Jr is good too, when he's not sober...

[Ksyrup]

This probably isn't going to help...


hxxp://www.startcolorado.com/flash/chocofac/dc101.html

[-Mojo Jojo-]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Seriously, Tim Burton hasn't made a movie that I like, including Batman.

Wow, Batman was a pretty sweet movie in its time. Nightmare Before Christmas and Sleepy Hollow were pretty awesome too, IMHO. Burton is a bit of a freak, but I like his style. ...not to say he hasn't bombed a few times. Planet of the Apes.. ugh.