Loose inspiration aside, the film industry had little to do with Glasgow’s Willy Wonka experience, which went viral last week for its catastrophic ineptitude.
An AI-generated ad misled attendees into thinking they were forking out £35 for an “immersive experience” based on Paul King’s smash hit origin story starring Timothée Chalamet. Instead, they were ushered into a barely decorated warehouse some likened to a meth den, sparsely populated by vaguely costumed actors who quickly left, en masse.
Children were entitled to two jelly beans and a quarter of a cup of lemonade. The police were called and the event shut after half a day.
Yet the Wonka experience may yet enjoy its moment in the cinematic sun. A new movie from Kaledonia Pictures is being rushed into production to capitalise on the global infamy enjoyed by the story.
The horror film will focus on The Unknown, a character devised – possibly not by a human – for the Glasgow show. Actor Paul Connell, who played Wonka in the experience, said the script was “15 pages of AI-generated gibberish,” and introduced the “Unknown [who] is an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls.”
The actor who played The Unknown at the experience shared her experience on TikTok.
The Kaledonia movie follows an illustrator and his wife who are haunted by the death of their son, Charlie. They attempt to escape their grief in the Scottish Highlands where “an unknowable evil awaits them”.
Warner Bros, which owns the film rights to Roald Dahl’s character – but not to The Unknown – has yet to comment.
Recent horror versions of children’s classics such as Winnie-the-Pooh have not met with positive notices.
