Big-screen spectacle “Wonka,” is “the perfect Christmas movie,” says director Paul King

When director Paul King, known for the family-favorite Paddington movies, was a child, one of the first books he read was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by beloved children’s book author Roald Dahl. “I loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” says King. “I read it again and again until the pages fell out of the cover. I remember loving the wild comedy, all the crazy characters, and the magic and mayhem of the chocolate factory.”

Years later, King would read it again from the perspective of an adult – and he found new things to love about the story! “When David [Heyman, producer] mentioned the idea of making a Wonka movie, I read it again and realized it also has an incredibly rich, almost Dickensian emotional core,” shares the director. “Charlie is such a kind, decent little boy and his family’s poverty causes them such suffering. The fact he goes on to inherit the factory, a more wonderful gift than he could ever have dreamt, had me in floods of tears – and the prospect of trying to make a film which captured Dahl’s spirit was too exciting to turn down.”