--- title: Willy Wonka Movie Will be Remade By Harry Potter Producer description: Warner Bros. acquired rights to Roald Dahl’s iconic character Willy Wonka and is developing a new movie based on the enigmatic candy baron. canonical: https://time.com/4537735/willy-wonka-reboot-david-heyman/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-19T22:10:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:17:36.177Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: There's About to Be a New 'Willy Wonka' Movie og:description: Done by 'Harry Potter' producer David Heyman og:url: https://time.com/4537735/willy-wonka-reboot-david-heyman/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt734844d0e56d88c9/6988a4b20b72e3ca5d6eae12/gettyimages-71494838.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Willy Wonka Wilder og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's About to Be a New 'Willy Wonka' Movie twitter:description: Done by 'Harry Potter' producer David Heyman twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt734844d0e56d88c9/6988a4b20b72e3ca5d6eae12/gettyimages-71494838.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's About to Be a New _Willy Wonka_ Movie by [Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly Oct 19, 2016 10:10 PM UTC  Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka Gene Wilder as Willy WonkaSilver Screen Collection/Getty Images by [Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Entertainment Weekly Oct 19, 2016 10:10 PM UTC Warner Bros. just scored a golden ticket. The studio has acquired rights to Roald Dahl’s iconic character Willy Wonka and is developing a new movie based on the enigmatic candy baron with _Harry Potter_ producer David Heyman, EW has confirmed. Screenwriter Simon Rich (_The Secret Life of Pets_) is tackling the script. According to _Variety_, which [first reported](http://variety.com/2016/film/news/willy-wonka-new-movie-david-heyman-warner-bros-1201894143/) the news, the film will focus on Wonka and his early adventures. Wonka previously appeared on the big screen played by Gene Wilder in _Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory_ (1971) and Johnny Depp in _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ (2005). Both movies were adapted from the first of Dahl’s two books featuring Wonka, the other being _Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator_. Heyman and Warner Bros. had tremendous success bringing beloved book characters to the multiplex with the _Harry Potter_ films, and they’re currently trying to [recreate that magic](http://www.ew.com/article/2013/10/02/harry-potter-fantastic-beasts-david-heyman) with the spinoff series _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_, which recently [swelled to a planned five installments](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/13/j-k-rowling-fantastic-beasts). If moviegoers are still sweet on Wonka, they might well see more of him. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/10/19/willy-wonka-movie-warner-bros-harry-potter-producer) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4537735/willy-wonka-reboot-david-heyman/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4537735/willy-wonka-reboot-david-heyman/"},"headline":"There's About to Be a New Willy Wonka Movie","datePublished":"2016-10-19T22:10:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:17:36.177Z","description":"Done by 'Harry Potter' producer David Heyman","url":"https://time.com/4537735/willy-wonka-reboot-david-heyman/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt734844d0e56d88c9/6988a4b20b72e3ca5d6eae12/gettyimages-71494838.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Entertainment Weekly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt734844d0e56d88c9/6988a4b20b72e3ca5d6eae12/gettyimages-71494838.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Willy Wonka Wilder","caption":"Willy Wonka Wilder","creditText":"Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4537735/willy-wonka-reboot-david-heyman/","name":"There's About to Be a New Willy Wonka Movie"}}]}] ```