Deciding which parents get to visit the factory
I have a question about your upcoming film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What made you decide to have each child bring only one guardian to Wonka’s factory, and how did you choose which one would go?
–Michael
Daphne, Alabama
In Roald Dahl’s book, each of the four rotten kids (Veruca, Violet, Augustus and Mike) brings both of their parents on the tour of the factory. Charlie only bring Grandpa Joe, for reasons that are never entirely clear. According to the rules on the Golden Ticket, he’s allowed to bring two parents, but he doesn’t.
When Tim Burton and I first sat down to talk about how we were going to adapt Dahl’s book for the screen, the two-parent issue was one of my first questions. In addition to being a little unfair to Charlie, having each of the rotten kids bring both parents presented a lot of problems.
With a book, the reader can conveniently forget that Mrs. Teavee hasn’t said anything for a long time. In a movie, however, that character is always going to be on-screen. Which means she needs to be doing something, saying something. She has to interact with all the other characters in the scene, who in turn have to interact with each other, which steals focus from Charlie, Willy Wonka, and the rotten kids.
Basically, twice the parents means everyone gets half as much to say and do.
So we quickly decided that the rule on the Golden Ticket would be that every kid gets to bring one parent or guardian. No fuss, no muss.
Then the question becomes, which parent goes with which kid?
In my mind, piggy Augustus got that way because he had a mother who equated food with love. So Mrs. Gloop would be the first parent. We don’t learn much about her except that she and her husband own a sausage shop in Germany.
Violet Beauregarde claimed to be the world record-holder in chewing gum, so we decided to make her hyper-competitive, her ego stoked by sports mom Ms. Beauregarde, herself a former baton champion. We never say anything about Violet’s father.
Veruca Salt is a daddy’s girl gone wicked, manipulative and bossy. So it only made sense for her to bring her father, a British nut baron.
Finally, there’s Mike Teavee. In Dahl’s book, he’s obsessed with TV westerns and shoot-em-up cop shows. Updating it a bit, we gave him violent videogames and a well-meaning but completely over-his-head father, who is literally bullied by his son.
Even with just these four characters, it took work to find enough for everyone to do and say. In the Chocolate Room, for instance, we have to keep track of Willy Wonka, Charlie, Grandpa Joe, Augustus, Mrs. Gloop, Violet, Ms. Beauregarde, Veruca, Mr. Salt, Mike and Mr. Teavee. That’s eleven characters, not counting the Oompa-Loompas. If we’d added four more parents to the scene, we’d probably still be shooting it.
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June 24th, 2005 at 9:28 am
hmm, you know what i find interesting about that? i remember that you hadn’t seen the original film when you wrote the screenplay for this one.
in the original film, there is one parent/guardian per kid inside the factory.
so it would seem you struck on the same thing as the original writer.
June 24th, 2005 at 9:50 am
so my flatmate just got home, we discussed this post and the only parent you chose differently was violet’s. in the original film she goes with her dad, not her mum.
June 24th, 2005 at 10:05 am
Nice body of work and great blog..
As an aspiring novelist hoping to see a treatment develop out of my book, I think I picked up some pretty useful information here.
I’m especially looking forward to seeing Depp in the new film that’s being released shortly.
June 24th, 2005 at 10:57 am
Actually, when I watched the original film, I noticed that two of the parents are diffent than our version. They have Mrs. Teavee and Mr. Beauregarde; we have Mr. Teavee and Ms. Beauregarde.
June 24th, 2005 at 6:32 pm
That’s correct John, but I thought that maybe the character’s of Mr Salt and Mr Beauregarde in the original were too similar.
Does anyone agree?
June 25th, 2005 at 2:40 am
oh yeah.
great, i’m going senile and unobservant at 34! awesome.
June 25th, 2005 at 3:52 pm
My feeling is that in the book, the parents serve as little more than foils for the bad kids. They’re there to explain why the kids have turned out so rotten, but not to drive the plot or illuminate why Charlie is admirable (other perhaps than as comparisons against Grandpa Joe).
If it wouldn’t be so creepy to a country fresh off yet another Michael Jackson sex scandal, I would consider writing the parents out entirely.
That said, I think this is the best solution, and one quite faithful to the original work. I’m most interested in how Mike Teavee turns out, I think.
June 25th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
very interesting, indeed
June 26th, 2005 at 12:15 am
All I have to say is that MIssi Pyle manages to steal a little more of my heart every time I see her. Thank you for let her character in.
June 28th, 2005 at 4:53 am
Hello Mr. August, that was so very interesting to read the process, the reasons why you decided to put the certain characters and the parents. You have a wonderful blog. Good luck with CATCF!
Aviya [a.k.a Vivi Sparrow] ISRAEL
August 13th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Mike Teavee rules. His personality is awsome. He’s funny and he looks like a good Mike Teavee.
August 13th, 2005 at 2:53 pm
He’s hot 2
August 19th, 2005 at 11:38 am
I want to be Jordan Fry’s (Mike Teavee’s)girlfriend he is the cutest guy I have ever seen in my life.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I love jordan Fry so much! he’s so hottttttttttt! I wanna marry Jordan Fry!
January 4th, 2008 at 11:01 am
jordan fry is like the hottest guy ever!!!!!!
January 4th, 2008 at 11:04 am
and me and him both have like the same stuff! braces,love soccer and same birthday!
February 7th, 2008 at 11:41 am
yea…michelle girl sorry about my friend …she was right your not his only fan! and your really weird to! and I was mad at her and my mom because they went to a starbucks and met him!!!!!!I did not talk to them for like a week! so dude really!!!!
March 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
aahhh. Jordan Fry is the fittest guy i hav everr seen. LOVE to meet him someday. does he hav msn..?
xoox