Based on the trailer, I'd say so. An apt choice, isn't it? The Chocolate Factory ≈ Neverland.
UPDATE: Chris emails:
Why didn't you mention in your Johnny Depp post that this is the second consecutive role in which he seems to indirectly be playing Michael Jackson (the first being Finding Neverland)? I agree that he looks eerily like Jackson in the trailer.ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's my conclusion, after seeing the movie, about whether Depp based his character on Michael Jackson.
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10 comments:
Johnny is doing what many actors do after they have kids -- they start making movies that their own children can watch. I've seen the trailer several times and think that he'll make a fine Willy Wonka. And, if not, he's always nice to look at.
Iron: There's no singing in the new movie. I find Gene Wilder incredibly creepy. And Johnny Depp just the sweetest thing!
Tonya: He's going awfully effeminate and blatantly wearing lipstick in the Jackson fashion.
Whatever. He's still Johnny Depp. Um, he didn't cut his hair, did he? 'Cause I love his long hair.
I'm sure that Wonka pageboy is a wig.
Whew!
I enjoy gene wilder because he always seems to be on the edge of snapping.
Depp has said in at least one interview that he based his character in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN on Keith Richards. (I haven't seen that movie, but I would, just to see Keith.) So it's believable that he uses rock stars as character models.
Iron Teakettle: I laughed at a lot of Gene Wilder things back in the 1970s. He's funny in "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask." Creepy too. Let's just say I find him physically unappealing -- extremely so. Johnny, on the other hand -- exactly the opposite. As to the original "Willie Wonka" movie - I think everyone has seen that, possibly numerous times. That movie being good doesn't mean there can't be another one. "Hamlet" has been done more than once. Why not "Willie"?
Lindsey: The new movie is NOT a musical. I'm sure there's the usual background music.
TWM: Marilyn Manson? Isn't he pretty ordinary when not performing. What was the documentary where you see him talking backstage? Oh, that's what IMDB is good for. "Bowling for Columbine." He doesn't seem to have an weird or distinctive characteristics too me. Maybe something of the visual side, but the MJ effect is very evident, in my opinion.
Richard: Good point. I've seen "Pirates" and the Keith Richards source material is quite clearly there. The sequel has Richards himself playing Depp's dad.
Depp also drew on Chaplin and Buster Keaton for his performance in "Benny and Joon." That was in the script, but he was very good at that, early in his career. It's a way to get ideas for transforming yourself, which he likes to do. And of course, he actually impersonated Hunter S. Thompson.
Although I'll probably love seeing depp as wonka, and enjoy a tim burton chocolate factory, this trend of remaking old movies is starting to get annoying. Where are the new fables and fairy tales?
In the clip I saw, Johnny Depp looked like a cross between Michael Jackson, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford, a drag queen and Charles Manson. I don't know what the movie is going to look like his performance looks fascinating.
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