Development The idea for
adapting the
Roald Dahl book
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory into a film came about when director
Mel Stuart's 10-year-old daughter read the book and asked her father to make a film out of it, with "Uncle Dave" (producer
David L. Wolper, who was not related to the Stuarts) producing. Stuart showed the book to Wolper, who happened to be in the midst of talks with the
Quaker Oats Company regarding a vehicle to introduce a new candy bar from its
Chicago-based Breaker Confections subsidiary (subsequently renamed
The Willy Wonka Candy Company and sold to
Nestlé). Wolper persuaded the company, which had no previous experience in the film industry, to buy the rights to the book and finance the picture for the purpose of promoting a new Quaker Oats "
Wonka Bar".
Writing Wolper and Roald Dahl agreed that Dahl would also write the screenplay. Wolper called in
David Seltzer for an uncredited rewrite after Dahl left over creative differences. Wolper promised to produce Seltzer's next film for his lack of a credit as they needed to maintain credibility by keeping Dahl's name attached to the production. Changes to the story included
Willy Wonka's character given more emphasis over Charlie Bucket, Arthur Slugworth, originally a minor character who was a Wonka industry rival in the book, reworked into a spy so that the film could have a villain for intrigue, the absence of Mr. Bucket, a belching scene added with Grandpa Joe and Charlie having "fizzy lifting drinks", the walnut-shelling squirrels changed to golden-egg-laying geese and the ending dialogue. Seltzer also created a recurring theme that had Wonka quote from various literary sources, such as
Arthur O'Shaughnessy's
Ode,
Oscar Wilde's
The Importance of Being Earnest,
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and
William Shakespeare's
The Merchant of Venice. After completing the screenplay, Seltzer was exhausted and went on vacation to a remote cabin in Maine. However, while filming the final scene, Stuart was unhappy with the ending having Dahl's version of Grandpa Joe just exclaiming "Yippee!" The director tracked down the writer to the only phone in the area which was attached to a tree. By chance, Seltzer was passing and answered the call. Stuart told him to think up an ending quickly as the production was waiting at great expense. Seltzer could only recall the overused phrase to fairytale endings and therefore reworked Wonka's final line to Charlie: "Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted? ... He lived happily ever after."
Songwriting Wolper decided with Stuart that the film would be a musical and approached composers
Richard Rodgers and
Henry Mancini but both declined. Eventually, they secured the songwriting team
Leslie Bricusse and
Anthony Newley. The studio publicity stated that the title "was changed to put emphasis on the eccentric central character of Willy Wonka".
Costume Gene Wilder wanted specific changes to Wonka's costume, including what type of trousers the character should wear, "the color and cut" of his jacket and the placement of pockets. Wilder also requested making Wonka's hat smaller, saying "The hat is terrific, but making it shorter would make it more special".
Casting Before Wilder was officially cast as Willy Wonka, producers considered many actors.
Joel Grey was the front runner for the part but Stuart decided he was not physically imposing enough as the actor's height was five-foot-five. The producers learned that
Fred Astaire wanted the part but the 72-year-old may have considered himself too old. Actors were auditioned for the role of Willy Wonka in a suite at the
Plaza Hotel in
New York and by the end of the week Wilder had walked in. It was then Stuart and producer Wolper realised that they could stop looking. Wolper tried to suppress Stuart's eagerness for Wilder as he wanted to negotiate the salary. Regardless, Stuart ran out into the hall as Wilder was leaving and offered him the part of Wonka. When Wilder was cast as Wonka, he accepted the role on one condition: Stuart responded, "What do you want to do that for?" Wilder answered, "From that time on, no one will know if I'm lying or telling the truth." Wilder was adamant that he would decline the role otherwise.
Jim Backus was considered for the role of Sam Beauregarde. Anthony Newley also wanted to play Bill but Stuart also dissuaded him for the same reason. The child actors who were auditioned from hundreds,
Julie Dawn Cole,
Denise Nickerson,
Peter Ostrum and
Paris Themmen, all had acting experience from
drama school, theatre, television or commercials.
Michael Böllner had the primary attribute of being rotund and was discovered in Germany when Stuart was location scouting. Stuart asked him to imagine being stuck in a tube and then "squeezed him like a roll of putty". After location scouting in Europe, including the
Guinness brewery in Ireland and a real-life chocolate factory in Spain, production designer
Harper Goff decided to house the factory sets and the massive Chocolate Room at
Bavaria Studios. It was also significantly cheaper than filming in the United States, and the primary shooting locations in
Munich,
Bavaria,
West Germany were conducive to the desired atmosphere for Wonka's factory. Stuart also liked the ambiguity and unfamiliarity of the location.
Locations External shots of the factory were filmed at the
gasworks of
Stadtwerke München (Emmy-Noether-Straße 10); the entrance and side buildings still exist as of 2021. The exterior of Charlie Bucket's house, a set constructed solely for the film, was filmed at Quellenstraße in Munich. Charlie's school was filmed at Katholisches Pfarramt St. Sylvester, Biedersteiner Straße 1 in Munich. Bill's Candy Shop was filmed at Lilienstraße, Munich. The closing sequence, in which the Wonkavator is flying above the factory, is footage of
Nördlingen, Bavaria and the elevator rising shot showing that it shoots out of the factory was from Bößeneckerstraße 4, 86720 Nördlingen, Germany, now the location of a CAP-Märkte.
Production design The construction of the original Inventing Room was meant to be an industrial room with steel tubes. Stuart envisioned it differently as a wacky inventor's laboratory, with
Rube Goldberg-type mechanisms and unusual contraptions and wanted it redesigned to be like Wonka's personality. Goff sent his construction crew into Munich searching junkyards, bakeries and car dealers for discarded machinery, tin funnels, and any other raw materials. This included building Wonka's three-course gum machine, which was originally a solid-state device but Stuart requested an appliance whose operations had a visual experience for the audience. Stuart also instructed Goff to have all the props, furniture and fittings, excluding the light bulbs, in Wonka's original office to be cut in half, to reflect the character's eccentricity. Veruca Salt (Cole) had a chocolate watermelon; Mike Teevee (Themmen) had gum balls from a tree; Violet Beauregarde (Nickerson)'s "three-course gum" was actually a toffee-based candy and marzipan was freely available on set; also there were giant mushrooms filled with whipped cream, and the trees had edible leaves. The inedible items included giant gummy bears that were plastic (the ears were edible, however); the flavored wallpaper was not actually flavored; and Wonka's flower cup was made of wax which Wilder would chew on camera and spit out after each take. A combination of salt conditioner and some chemicals eventually removed the stink problem but it remained cold, dirty water. When Wonka makes his entrance at the factory gates, nobody was aware of Wilder's approach as he limped then somersaulted; the reaction was of real surprise. Similarly, when Wilder rehearsed the Wonka office scene, with Peter Ostrum as Charlie and
Jack Albertson as Grandpa Joe, it was in a much calmer tone. When filming started, he increasingly became angry. When he shouted, "So you get nothing!", it was so that the reactions would be authentic. An example of Themmen's misbehaviour was releasing bees from a beehive on Wonka's three-course gum machine. Said Stuart, "As life mirrored one of the morals of the movie, one of the bees stung him." == Release ==