Elijah Wood Calls Tim Burton's Chocolate Factory Remake 'Heinous'
The Lord of the Rings star didn't hold back when discussing which movie he'd erase from existence, targeting Johnny Depp's controversial performance in the 2005 adaptation.
Picture this: you get one chance to wipe a single movie from existence forever. What would you choose? Maybe every Michael Bay explosion-fest? The endless Exorcist sequels? That trainwreck called Battlefield Earth?
Most actors who dream of erasing films usually target their own disasters. Hugh Jackman probably loses sleep over Movie 43, where he played a guy with giant testicles hanging from his neck. But when Elijah Wood got asked this question back in 2017, he went after someone else's work entirely.
Wood's Surprising Target
The Lord of the Rings star chose Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not his own forgettable projects like The Last Witch Hunter with Vin Diesel, or that painfully boring Flipper remake from the '90s. Nope. He went straight for Burton's controversial adaptation.
"Most remakes don't justify existing," Wood explained. He argued that if you're going to remake something, you need to either improve on the original or create something completely different. Burton's version? "That film did none of that. If anything, it destroyed the book, and it destroyed the film. It contained no magic."
The Depp Problem
That's harsh criticism for a Burton movie. The Edward Scissorhands director usually drowns his films in dark whimsy and imagination. But this time, all that creative energy went sideways.
Johnny Depp was deep in his post-Pirates showboat phase when he tackled Willy Wonka. He basically hijacked the entire movie. Wood didn't mince words about Depp's performance, calling it "heinous and terrifying and molest-y and strange." He said it lacked any beauty or purity.
Gene Wilder's original Wonka had some con-artist qualities, sure. But by the end, audiences still felt amazed by him. Depp just spent two hours chewing scenery and leering at nothing. His performance felt aimed at bored parents dragged to theaters by their kids.
A Missed Opportunity
Mortdecai in 2015 might be Depp's worst vanity project overall. But the Chocolate Factory remake stung more because of what it replaced. The original book and 1971 film are beloved classics.
Some people did enjoy Burton's version. They're probably the same folks who showed up for the fourth Pirates movie just to watch Jack Sparrow again. For everyone else who cared about the actual story? There wasn't much to love and plenty to cringe about.