6. Johnny Depp As Willy Wonka In Charlie And The Chocolate Factory
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp getting together to put Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the big screen?! What could possibly go wrong?! Quite a lot as it happens... One of my favourite films of Burton's is Beetlejuice in which Burton manages to subvert the idea of the wholesome American family using a couple of ghosts- including one really randy and vulgar one. He does something similar with fairy tales in Edward Scissorhands and the Nightmare Before Christmas. My problem with his remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is that he seems to think that the first movie was just naive rather than idealistic - which is what I think makes the Gene Wilder version so compelling. I also think Depp's performance is just weird, as if he's almost just playing every line for laughs rather than anything else. Gene Wilder seems to convey with little glances the idea that though this is a wonderland, you can see that he is getting tired of it. And the music in the remake tries waaaay too hard.