Hugh Grant has been revealed as playing an Oompa-Loompa in the upcoming film Wonka.
Set for release later this year (December 15) via Warner Bros., the long-awaited film is the third film adaptation to be made of Roald Dahl’s popular children’s book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory – and will feature Timothée Chalamet as the character Willy Wonka.
Now, following the release of a new trailer at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, it has been revealed that Notting Hill actor Hugh Grant will be playing the role of one of Wonka’s Oompa-Loompas.
In the extended footage, which was shown to exhibitors yesterday (April 15), the fictional sweet treat developer comes across the Oompa-Loompa (Grant), who is trapped in a glass jar, and later hires him to work in his factory.
The footage also paid homage to Singin’ In the Rain – showing Chalamet singing, dancing and spinning around a light pole while searching for magical recipes. It also provided the audience with a glimpse into Olivia Colman’s character as a Cockney innkeeper and Sally Hawkins as Wonka’s mother.
Although specifics about the film remain sparse, it has been confirmed that Wonka will not feature Charlie, nor other characters who are presented with the opportunity to visit the heavily guarded chocolate factory. Instead, the film will explore the origin story of Willy Wonka, and take place as he is about to launch the world-famous location.
This separates it from the two previous film adaptations – Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005) – which both followed the same narrative as laid out in the novel and saw the character of Wonka played by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp respectively.
The film is directed by Paul King, who also worked on the 2014 film Paddington.
Elsewhere, Hugh Grant has also starred in recent blockbuster hits including Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
In the latter, the Love Actually actor admitted that he lost his patience with “a nice local woman” on set. “I lost my temper with a woman in my eyeline on day one. I assumed she was some executive from the studio who should have known better,” he said to Total Film (via Yahoo! Entertainment). “Then it turns out that she’s an extremely nice local woman who was the chaperone of the young girl. Terrible.”
Grant, who played rogue character Forge Fitzwilliam in the fantasy film, also said he had “a lot of grovelling” to do after realising his mistake, and labelled the blunder as doing “a Christian Bale”.