Dahl himself would be exasperated over the 1971 film’s endurance. Though he was nominally billed as its screenwriter, his original adaptation was scarcely detectable beneath all manner of uncredited rewrites, and he was vocal in his disdain for the result, Wilder and all. His list of grievances was long: Dahl had wanted the arch British peculiarity of Spike Milligan or Peter Sellers for Wonka, he was unhappy with the film’s foregrounding of Wonka over Charlie, he resented plot alterations and additions that muddied the cautionary neatness of his original tale, and he wasn’t a fan of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s perky song score.
Honestly, that makes me feel even shittier about the AI Gene Wilder now.
Might as well exhume his corpse and start puppeting that.
That’d be dope for the tunnel scene.
There’s no earthly way of knowing
which direction we are going.
Careful, Netflix just might do that.
Gene Wilder in the reboot of Weekend at Bernie’s, coming summer 2026
For as much as Gene Wilder already resented this role, I’m pretty sure he’s about to exhume himself and send Netflix’s CEO down the bad egg chute.
Edit: I was big, big wrong. Please see below.
Huh? How do you mean he resented the role? I’ve only ever seen him saying he was passionate about playing wonka
Oh, I completely misremembered. I’m really sorry: it was Dahl who loathed the 1971 film, and Wilder put a lot of his own feedback into the role.
From The Guardian:
Honestly, that makes me feel even shittier about the AI Gene Wilder now.
I’m with you. I’m confident Wilder would never have been okay with it at all.