Trivia
Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Nicolas Cage, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Ben Stiller, Dwayne Johnson, Bill Murray, Leslie Nielsen, Patrick Stewart, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Rowan Atkinson, Robert De Niro and Michael Keaton were all considered for the role of Willy Wonka. Marilyn Manson also badly wanted the part.
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Johnny Depp used game show hosts as well as children's television hosts, such as Fred Rogers, as his inspiration for his performance as Willy Wonka. He also said in interviews that Willy Wonka would be "part Howard Hughes-reclusive, part 1970s glamorous rock star".
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The singing voice of the Oompa-Loompas belongs to that of Danny Elfman who overdubbed himself dozens of times.
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The lyrics to four of the five musical numbers in the movie were written by Roald Dahl himself.
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To his surprise, Deep Roy played every Oompa-Loompa himself, repeating the same movements several hundred times. While these were then put together digitally, each Oompa-Loompa represents a separate performance by Roy. In recognition of this, Roy's salary was raised to $1,000,000.
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To audition for the part of the Oompa-Loompas, Deep Roy danced and lip-synced to the song "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones, not knowing that Burton had used the song in Mars Attacks!.
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Quite a lot of the chocolate things such as trees, flowers etc featured in the movie were created by chocolate shop Choccywoccydoodah in Brighton, UK. The shop displayed and sold some of the creations in the shop after the release of the film.
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The voice for Willy Wonka was first conceived after being tried out on Johnny Depp's own daughter. She liked it.
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Forty squirrels were trained for the scene where they pounce upon the character Veruca Salt.
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Johnny Depp's second chocolate-based movie (the first being Chocolat). Depp doesn't like the taste of good chocolate - he prefers the cheap, Easter-bunny type.
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Martin Scorsese, Rob Minkoff, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson and Gary Ross were all at one point either seriously considered to, or attached to direct.
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Richard Attenborough, Kirk Douglas, Albert Finney, Richard Griffiths, Anthony Hopkins, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Paul Newman, Max Von Sydow , and David Warner were all considered for the role of Grandpa Joe. Liccy Dahl actually wanted Christopher Lloyd for the part.
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Tim Allen, Dan Castellaneta, James Belushi, Bob Saget, Kurtwood Smith, Ray Romano, Ed O'Neill and others who are famous for playing TV Dads were considered for the role of Mr. Teavee.
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A camera lens wasn't properly secured when trying to get a shot of a vat of chocolate. As a result, the lens fell into the vat, which destroyed it.
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Screenwriter John August had never even seen Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory when asked by Tim Burton to write the script. After finishing the screenplay, he finally watched the 1971 version, only to be surprised at how much darker the "family" film was compared to his own.
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Johnny Depp was so impressed with Freddie Highmore's performance in Finding Neverland that he recommended that Tim Burton observe him for the role of Charlie Bucket.
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Some of the buttons in the Glass elevator:
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- Incompetent Fools
- T-Bone Steak Jell-O
- Secretarial Poodles
- Cocoa Cats
- Mechanical Clouds
- Stars in their Pies
- Nice Plums
- Up And Out
- Fragile Egos
- Black Box of Frogs
- Weird Lollipops
- Mighty Jam Monitor
- Creative Dog Flip
- Elastic Forest
- Leaky Canes
- Dessert Island
- People Poo
- Pie Cream
- Spewed Vegetables
- Naffy Taffy
- Lickety Split Peas
- Honeycombs and Brushes
- Old Sneezes and Smells Dept.
- Spewed Dumplings
- Television Room
- Whizzdoodles
- Chocolate Lip Rookies
- Blackberry Sausages
- Yankee- Doodles
- Orange Egg Flip
- Root Beer Goggles
- Pastry Room
- Heart Shaped Lungs
- Projection Room
206,563.48 US gallons (781,927.83 litres) of fake chocolate were made for the river area while 38,430.42 US gallons (145,474.96 litres) of it were made for the waterfall. The grand total of all the fake chocolate used on stage was 244,993.98 US gallons (927,403.1 litres).
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The UPC on the giant chocolate bar to be sent by television is 034000190003, which is the UPC for 7oz Hershey's milk chocolate candy bars. The Willy Wonka Candy Company is a brand of Nestlé, one of Hershey's biggest competitors.
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The lollipops on the trees, the giant pink sugar canes, and the giant humbugs were real candy.
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In the same room as the machine that makes the "three-course meal" gum, there are large rotating drums that look like bowls filled with colored balls. These are real machines that make large jawbreakers, or Gobstoppers, which are sold under the Willy Wonka brand.
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The film was one of the many projects that was produced by Plan B Productions, the film production company that actors Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston formed during their marriage. It was the last production produced before they filed for divorce.
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In Charlie's bedroom, there are wrappers of every Wonka bar he has ever eaten on the wall.
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In early 2003, Gregory Peck was offered the role of Grandpa Joe. He told Warner Bros. he'd consider it. He died before he could give them an answer. His family have said in interviews that he only told them that as he didn't want to seem desperate and take a big pay cut, he was really looking forward to playing Grandpa Joe.
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Peter Ustinov was offered the role of Grandpa Joe but died before he could give the producers his answer.
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Willy Wonka's colorful cane is actually filled with Nerds candy, which are sold under the Willy Wonka brand.
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Having has such trouble in casting Grandpa Joe - Tim Burton offered the part to David Kelly when the two first met when Kelly was visiting Pinewood studios for a wardrobe fitting on another movie. David Kelly says the whole process took 3 minutes.
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AnnaSophia Robb says she got a lot of jaw cramps, while chewing her gum. Her dad also told her to not smack her gum, but the filmmakers told her to otherwise.
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The location of Wonka's factory in the movie is ambiguous, and designed to look like a cross between UK and USA (i.e. having London architecture, street layouts and accents, but American clothing styles, and having American mailboxes and fire hydrants as well as American terminology).
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When the obnoxious Veruca Salt introduces herself, Willy Wonka says, "I always thought a verruca was a type of wart ..." In fact, "Verruca plantaris" is a painful wart caused by the human papillomavirus and occurs on the sole or toes of the foot.
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AnnaSophia Robb wore prosthetics in the blueberry transformation scene, causing her face to swell up to twice its normal size.
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While going down the chocolate river, the boat falls down into an area you on the far left of the screen there is a room titled "Deep Room" next to the chocolate falls.
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Eli Wallach, Richard Attenborough and Anthony Hopkins were all considered for the role of Grandpa Joe.
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Johnny Depp always cited one of his favorite actors of all time to be Marlon Brando, who died during the filming of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Brando was well known for his tendency to mumble when delivering lines. The scene where Wonka shouts "Mumbler!" at Mike Teavee is a possible commemoration of Brando.
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Dr. Wonka tells young Willy that some people are allergic to chocolate to discourage him from eating any candy. As a child, Johnny Depp was allergic to chocolate.
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Originally the production crew wanted to do Violet's blueberry demise on stage, but Tim Burton stepped in and said it should be done digitally.
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Violet's scene where she blows up into a blueberry was shot by digitally creating the inflated body, then adding in a live action shot of the actress on a tilting machine.
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Director Trademark
Tim Burton:
[black and white stripes]
Found on the sleeves of the Oompa Loompa swimsuits during the Augustus Gloop song.
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Spoilers
In the very last scene where Willie talks to a shrink, the Doctor's name-tag on the desk is " Dr P Sarrosy " - an homage to famed cinematographer Paul Sarossy.
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The flash-back about Willy Wonka's childhood and his being obliged to wear a huge dental brace are not from the original book. The brace is a reference to Tim Burton's own childhood.
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The role of Doctor Wilbur Wonka (Christopher Lee) was written specifically for the film to give the character of Willy Wonka a bit of a family history.
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Liz Smith, who plays Grandma Georgina, stated in an interview on AskMen.com that she read the scripts for both of the grandmothers and picked the one that got to kiss Johnny Depp ("and it was lovely").
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