London’s Royal Festival Hall was transformed into a festive version of Willy Wonka‘s chocolate factory on Tuesday for the world premiere of Warner Bros.’ musical, Wonka.
Timothée Chalamet — who plays Wonka — was among the guests at the event and spent over an hour signing autographs and posing for selfies on a red carpet decorated with giant cotton candy clouds and jars of sweets. His co-stars also attended, including Hugh Grant, Olivia Colman, Keegan-Michael Key, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and newcomer Calah Lane.
“Our cast is like a box of the most beautiful chocolates,” said director Paul King, who co-wrote the screenplay with his Paddington collaborator Simon Farnaby.
The filmmaker has also praised his star’s singing voice on more than one occasion, even going as far as comparing him to Bing Crosby.
“There’s quite a range because it does go from a couple of bigger, showstopper-y sort of things, to moments of real, pure emotion, and he can do it all… I’m going to sound like a crazed fan,” he said in a previous interview.
Wonka is a prequel to Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, telling the origin story of how a young Wonka became the world-famous and eccentric chocolatier portrayed by the likes of Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp over the last several decades.
The film comes 18 years after Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which starred Depp in the lead role, and also coming from Warner Bros, which later acquired the rights to the character in 2016.
Much of Wonka was shot in Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, just outside of London, with location shoots in U.K. cities such as Oxford and Bath.
Wonka is set for release in the United Kingdom on Dec. 8 and in the U.S. on Dec 15 Dec.
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