Kermode & Mayo’s Take - Paul King & Simon Farnaby, Wonka, Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain & Leave the World Behind

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

Simon sits down with director and screenwriter Paul King and screenwriter Simon Farnaby to discuss their new Timothée Chalamet-starring Christmas blockbuster, ‘Wonka’, which is a prequel to the Roald Dahl children’s classic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Mark gives his take on the film, along with reviewing ‘Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain’, the Saturday Night Live trio’s first comedy feature about a three childhood friends who realise they don’t like their life trajectory and so set off to find the treasure that is rumoured to be buried in a nearby mountain; and ‘Leave the World Behind’, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail’s star-studded psychological thriller – and adaptation of the novel of the same – which sees a family’s Long Island vacation interrupted by two strangers bearing news of a mysterious blackout. Time Codes (relevant only for the Vanguard - who are ad-free!): 09:44 Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain Review 18:45 Box Office Top Ten 35:05 Simon Farnaby and Paul King Interview 51:05 Wonka Review 01:00:19 Laughter Lift 01:04:05 Leave the World Behind Review 01:13:38 What’s On You can contact the show by emailing [e-mail] or you can find us on social media, @KermodeandMayo EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/take Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts and follow us @sonypodcasts To advertise on this show contact: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I don't know. He may be a bit slow off the mark, isn't he? Usually by now. No, I think you would only get included on the last month before Christmas. Okay, but as you said, also, you don't want wasailles around your house. You just started it. I know, but equally, if someone came round to my house on the North London wasale, offering me spiced cider, which originated apparently from the Anglo-Danish community, something which is really- Oh really? In favor, yeah.

And it's spiced cider. Yeah, that's- What's it spiced with? The usual kind of spicy things. Larger, because it's snake bite. Yeah, that's right. Did I ever tell you that story? Vaz Hyl is what it was.

Vaz Hyl. Vaz Hyl, that's the old Norse. Okay. Very quickly, interesting story that I was in a pub in London with a filmmaker. So many of you are so interesting. I'd be quick. The longer you drag it out, the less interesting it'll be. And I said to him, what would you like?

He said, I'll have a pint of cider and I don't drink cider. So I went to the bar and I said, I was like a pint of lager and a pint of cider. And the barman said, no. I said, a bigy-pardon.ger and a pint of cider. And the barman said, no. I said, a biggie pardon. He went, we don't serve snake bite. I said, I don't want snake bite. I want a pint of logger and a pint of cider. He went, not the same table.

I went, I like that. Think about this. I'd need a third glass. Well, you could have a mouth full of one and then a mouth full of the other. I think that would work. Madness. Musically, half man, half biscuit. half-biscuit had a song called

The Uffington Wassail. Today? Yes. On their album, which is still one of the great albums, Trouble Ever Bridgewater. Actually, that's a title. Also, I was just looking at this album. I didn't know that was what it was called.

It's funny. No surprise to anyone, still I span. Yeah. Did all around my... Did a... They did a wasailing song. On the, I mean, ridiculous title of... A hoi.

Okay. Ten man hop. Or Mr. Reservoir Butler rides again. That's the name of the album. That's the name of the album. Is that all bangers, no clangers, that album? It, I can't. Is it all killer, no filler?

It's all wasail. And nothing else. I think well the first track is. OK. Anyway, so speaking of ridiculous titles, I see what you've done forever. I offer you 10 Manhopper Mr. Reservoir, but there rides again. You offer me.

Please don't destroy Treasure of Foggy Mountain. Is that one film? It is, but there's a colon, because please don't destroy other troop that made Treasurer of Foggy Mountain. So it's not, please don't destroy, there's a Foggy Mountain treasure that they don't want you to destroy.

It's, please don't destroy, present, I suppose. Right, I don't think that works. Yeah, no. So I haven't seen the film, but why can't you just call it Foggy Mountain? That would be quite, right? I know. Anyway, we also have...

Or Foggy Bottom. Foggy Bottom. Or Soggy Bottom. The Foggy Bottom Boy. The Soggy Bottom. And they're the Soggy Bottom boys. I'm pretty certain that the Soggy Bottom boys. This is how brother we're at.

Yes, that's right. And he's, he's a man of constant sorrows. Yes. He's very good. Yeah. So I tell you what else we got to show. Leave the world behind, which is a really interesting movie, of Constance Oros. Yes. It was very good. Yeah. So I tell you what else we got in the show. Leave the world behind, which is a really interesting movie produced by Barak and

Michelle Obama, which is not something you read on every movie credit. And also, Wonka, with our special guests who are Paul King and Simon Farnaby, Paul is the director and they are both the co-writers of Wonka. You'll hear about them very, very shortly. Just checked, it is the soggy bottom boys I'm not making that up. Also, extra takes has landed adjacent to this particular podcast in which you'll get more complete rubbish. Yes. Pretty much like this. Our recommendation feature, which is TV movie of the week, brackets, we can watch list colon, we can not list. Again, it doesn't quite work.

Other reviews will include TARAC, the peasants and battle over Britain. So there's three extra reviews. I've got, I've walked the full length of the calendar. Thank you. A pretentious mark is currently marked 25, marked 20 mark pulling away. But now sounds like a self. Biblical verse reference. It does.

Mark 25. Verse 20. Actually, maybe someone could look, can you look that up please, for later, I'm going to get that. I'd like to know. I mean, obviously we should, we do know what it would be, but Mark, chapter 25, verse 20.

Do you remember when somebody asked Trump on television, you know, just what's one of your favorite biblical ideas? Oh, I don't, I don't, I don't, it's very personal to me. Yes, but just one. Well, no, I don't like to bring that up. You just name one. No, I don't, you've never read it, have you? You don't know anything at all.

And of course, that made all the difference to me. Exactly. It's like, it's like religious support. It's like the way that political satire prevented the rise of Hitler. That's so true. One frame back is inspired by Wonka. It's your top role dial adaptations. Plus, you know, usual stuff. And you can

access this via Apple Podcast or head to extra takes.com for non-fruit related devices. An email from Robin. Green. We're not gonna do the Van God Easter. Wait. Wait. Sorry.

Robin from Green Bray, California. It could be Green Bray, but it's BRAE, so I'm gonna go with Green Bray, California. Very, very, very. Hi friends. I want to thank you. That's very California, is it? And the list friends.

And the listener, who's letter you read? For restoring the we salute you to its rightful place in the liturgy, Mark's strange reticence, slash churlishness around it, actually sent me into a sort of existential crisis. As a founding member of the Vanguard Easter's, when it first happened,

I felt a little hurt. But I said to myself, you get a had free shows, you get extra content, what's wrong with you, you needy so and so. Then another week would pass. He doesn't sound American, but this person sounds English.

I would feel sad and would think, you don't need Mark to salute you, you weirdo. Another week, another failure to be saluted, another moment of sadness, an Edna Mode would send off in my head yelling, you are a laster girl, pull yourself together. So all this is to say, so Robin, I suspect may well be a girl.

Oh, but you're probably not sure. Well, she doesn't sound American, she sounds English. But Robin is one of those names that could be either, couldn't it? All this is to say, I salute you for saluting me again, and all is right with the world. So Mark, if you're already a van God, he's to as always, but particularly,

Robin in Greenbrae, California, we salute you. In fact, it says here, together stentoriously. What does that mean? I don't know, with great stentor. With a stentor. I think it means meaning, emphasis and extravagance. Okay. Do you spell Robin differently for... You can spell it with a Y, but this is with an I. No, no, but is it one... Is it gendered at all to spell it? Or is it just... It's just Robin with a Y, Robin with a... Whichever way, whichever way.

Because Robin Hood is R-O-B-I-N, isn't it? Yes. Because he was Robin of Loxley, is that right? Yes, but does this have any relevant? No, but then I... Okay, I was just... I'm sorry, I'm slightly distracted because I had a massive back problem earlier on this week, which is that could less me slightly dazed

and to confuse your eyes and why's a voice in my head just said they're both gender neutral. I believe it was Hannah, but it might have been my back. It could have been anything. It could have been anything. To be honest, we're now in trouble. If you're hearing voices in your head, good heavens above.

Exactly. Let us know if you hear anything else. Why don't you just say, as soon as you hear anything in your head, say it out loud. And then we'll see. I'm not doing that. That could be extra. I'm not doing this.

Did she do that in your head as well? No. She went in my head, she went, ooh, thinking that I would just say that I just did have done. They're good. No, I can't. I'm not going to take this well. She went in my head, she went, ooh, thinking that I would just say that I just did. I just did have done. They're good. No, I can't remember. I hate you.

Oh, not you. Well, I don't hate you anyway. It was a funny joke. hilarious. I'm sure, look at them, they're falling about. They are. Right, anyway, Robin, you know, that took an unexpected to do.

Do you think I am churlish? Yes. Oh. Okay. Next email. This is from Flora. Really? What?

Do you, do you, I'm, okay. Where, where, where does this just, just why are we talking? Because, because marks churlishness, which was referred to in the thing, do you think I am churlish? No, this is, this is responding to a specific thing.

No, I know, but, you know, we're just in general. No, no, no, Mark, no. You do think I'm, I know, but just in general. No, no, Mark. You do think I'm churly. I just said no. You said no, in a way. How would you like me to say it? You'd say no now in a way.

You're not churlish. No, you're not churlish. I don't believe you. Okay. Flora, Simon and Mark, I don't know whether to be concerned or amazed, but with the arrival of Spotify wrapped this year, it turns out I've spent 42,102 minutes listening to your podcast. Apparently, that is in the top 0.05% of fans.

That's around 30 days straight. Well, we salute you. Okay, but we salute you. We salute you, Stentorially. We salute you, Stentorially. Thank you for keeping me company all this time. Flora, apparently your biggest fan, can anyone beat that? Has anyone got more, to be honest, you've listened to more minutes than we have, because we always tune out at various points.

42,000 sleeps, 102 minutes. Can anyone beat that? Correspondence to Covenaer.com. Tell us something that is out with a ridiculously long name. Please don't destroy Colon, Treasure of Foggy Bottom. So this is the debut feature film from the New York comedy troupe, please don't destroy who weirdly enough, this is quite odd. If you look at their Wikipedia page,

what are the Wikipedia page? It has them on it. It says, Oh yeah, she's a very interesting thing. So Ben Marshall John Higgins, Martin Hurley, he started out as a sketch comedy trio in 2017 with, please don't destroy my farm. Then move to... Was that code? Please don't destroy Colon, Mike.

No, I think at that point, that particular thing show was called, please don't destroy my farm. Then moved on to YouTube TikTok, was snapped up by Saturday Night Live, which is a big thing. So the feature is co-produced by Judd, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. The three of them play three young adult co-workers who were friends as kids, they're now kicking their heels.

One of them lives in the shadow of his dad, who is played by Conan O'Brien. Okay. Television. One of them is dating a Christian who wants him to get baptized, which he has agreed to do, although clearly not entirely of his own religion.

And one of them is just generally unhappy that anything at all has changed from their childhood. Their lives are then reinvigorated through a complex plot twist by resuming the search for lost treasure. This is the search for the treasure of the title, upon which they first embarked when they were young and... They can't start again. Say, well, again, I'm confused.

Okay, so now they're sort of young adults kicking their heels, but now they are restarting a search for some lost treasure that they first thought of searching for when they were kids, and they forgot about it because it's just a stupid idea. Now suddenly, oh, maybe we do have the keys to it. Okay, this is a trailer. This will explain everything. What the hell were you doing? You're three hours late! Dad, you don't understand. The car was busted,

so we had the shred. Why your lips ran? Were you winning a snow cone? It's a really good guess. We're kind of adults, really. The police are here. And they're saying that you bought alcohol for miners. They saw it!

In Europe, the drinking age is like 10. They could have been European. What made you think they were European? They had a certain genesea clon. I think one of them was eating pant. I'll shock a lot. Guys, everyone thinks we're losers, but that's about to change. I know where the treasure of foggy mountain is. From when we were kids, we were looking at a hundred million dollars. It'd be like, I mean, I know it's more than this, but at least a million dollars each.

Significantly more. What are we waiting for? So that kind of explained a reasonable choice in this. Yeah. Okay. And that is funny. Yes. And that's the thing. There are some reasonable jokes in there.

One point, one of them is described as looking like Tim Burton drew him, which I thought was a funny gag. It's narrated by John Goodman, who starts off the narration, is his voice that he recognizes being familiar. And then he says, incidentally, I'm John Goodman. I was in the Big Lebowski and a ton of other stuff as well, which is quite funny.

And then, Bon Yang, who does the George Santos character on... George Santos character, if George said it, who is he? A fictional character who just happens to be in real life. On Saturday Night Live, he has fun as this cult leader they encounter. So, all... And the humor is kind of generally self-deprecatory. A lot of what it doesn't have is any of the kind of nastiness or aggression of a lot of

that kind of bromant stuff that I never, you know, the sort of hangovery stuff. It's basically just jokes about themselves being a bit nerdy and a bit dweebie. The thing is, those gags themselves are quite funny. The mechanism of it being a feature film, meaning it has to have a plot, meaning it has to go from this act to this act to this act is, okay, fine. And I do get the impression that they're probably

at their best doing sketch comedy and doing the stuff that made them famous in the first place. But I went into this with a heavy heart because I thought, you know, because quite often anything that's been off from SNL actually doesn't make gravy, it was fine. But all the stuff that was fine would have been fine,

whether or not they were halfway up the side of a thing, trying to find the treasure of Fulgi Mountain and all the mechanics of the plot, it's just like, you know, all I actually need is the three of them doing that stuff about, you know, yeah, they have a, I do think that joke about they might have been European. Well, had you know, they had a certain to the same, they were eating kind of chocolate, but that's it. I imagine here it will have fairly minimal impact because I don't imagine that please don't

destroy, has a high profile. No. And I say that as somebody who watches SNL stuff on YouTube. I watch it, you know, I never find it that funny. I watch weekend update, because I do find weekend update funny. What's that? It's a segment of Saturday Night Live in which they do it, so I can use parody thing, but that's, you know, but that's it.

Beyond that, I'm kind of sort of, so I just, I don't imagine it will have that much traction here, but it's actually, it was quite cute in certain places, but it didn't need to be a feature. Why does off-color? I know that's what it means. That means sort of risque jokes. I believe it does, yeah. So off-color. I don't know, if I click on the Google link for off-color humor, it says, this is interesting, it's actually an effort. Off-color humor, also known as vulgar humor, crude humor, or shock humor, is humor that deals with topics that may be considered to be, also known as vulgar humour, crude humour or shock humour, is humour that deals with topics that may be considered to be in poor taste or vulgar.

No, I know, I'm just reading the definition. Blue comes from the book, doesn't it? Blue humour comes from the black book on the blue book. It's the blue book with the rude jokes in it. That's like, that's an old music hall thing. Don't know. Yeah. Off-color. No idea. The color jokes we use in ancient Greek comedy, apparently. Correspondence of Kevinovair.com, if you know, still to come, still to come, reviews of Leave the World Behind, which is a very interesting thriller,

and Wonka, with our special guest, Paul King and Simon Finaby. And our part three of a new feature called Wise Wise Words, in which Mark and I in alternating weeks have to guess the artist in terrible song during the break. So we'll be back before you can say, this is your turn this week. Oh is it my week? Yes. Oh, um, this is where you show what much preparation you've done. As it was my week. Okay, let me guess anyway. Okay, it was Dodge Brothers Christmas thing. No. I believe that children are our future. Winning for that will.

I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. Happy Nord Christmas. Protect yourself while Christmas shopping online and access all the Christmas films from around the globe. Plus, when you shop online, you'll have to give websites your card details and other

sensitive data like your personal addresses. Those websites should already have their own encryption built into their payment systems, but to be on the safe side, you can use a VPN to ensure that all data coming to and from your device is encrypted. Even if you're using an unsafe Wi-Fi, you'll still be able to shop securely with a VPN. And you can access Christmas films only available overseas by using streaming services not available in the UK. To take our huge discount of your NordVPN plan, go to NordVPN.com slash take. Our link will also give you four extra months for free on the two-year plan. There's no risk with Nord's 30-day money bank guarantee,

the link is in the podcast episode description box. This episode is brought to you by Mooby, a curated streaming service dedicated to elevating great cinema from around the globe. From myConnect directors to emerging oturs, there's always something new to discover, for example. Well, for example, the new Aki Karri's Macchi film Fallen Leaves, which won the jury prize at CAN,

that's in cinemas at the moment. And if you see that and think I want to know more about Aki Karri's Macchi, you can go to Mooby the streaming service, and there is a retrospective of his films called How to Be a Human. They are also going to be theatrically releasing In January Priscilla, which is a new Sophia Coppola film, which I am really looking forward to since I have an Elvis obsession. You can try Mooby Free for 30 days at Mooby.com slash Kermit and Mayo. That's M-U-B-I dot com slash Kermit and Mayo for a whole month of great cinema

for free. Can I just say this podcast you've, you said I hate you twice. Once you said to Hannah and the other you said to me, now back pain can excuse a lot of things, but it's turning. No, I know, I know, I know, I know, it's it's, it's, I mean, yes, I said it both times, joking with me, that is your right, what's the thing that you said that I thought was very profound was that you absolutely wouldn't get involved in that football chanting about, you know, you stand up if you hate

all of your hate songs. And also they have stand up if you hate to them. And I always said to Liz on form Terry Ebel, no, don't go that way. It's just, I know it's not, you know, maybe it's not serious, but for a lot of people, you can hate a lot of things, but the other club isn't one of them. No, exactly. And then there were actually, there were very few things that one can hate

and one should be very specific about the things that they write. So, I believe that children are our future. Yeah, I think it's the Dodge Brothers Christmas thing. No, you know it, it should be. Yes, but what is it? Is it Claydemons Ballad for Adelene? No. Frank Mills music box. Are you not trying? Or do you actually not know? I do know what it is by a comment.

What is it? Yeah, come on. What is it? I can't hear it playing in my head. I believe the children are our future. We need to do it. Well, actually, I mean, yes, Dolly Pountain. Yeah. And of course, most famously, Frank Mills. Kevin Roland. Dolly Parton. Yeah, and of course, most famously, Frank Mills. Kevin Rowland. So Kevin Rowland's version of the greatest love of all is an apps, I mean, honestly, that is something which you really have to hear to believe.

It's on that my beauty album. It's just the end of the feature. No, I've just done it. I thought it was a very good one. I'm like, well, you're supposed to prepare it and think about it and put in some time, but you just did it on the spur of the moment. I think you and I did it rather well. Well, I don't think so. End up with Kevin Roland. No, but it's not great. It's a little bit disappointing. You can't say you hate anybody else because you said you hate the producer and you hate me.

I don't hate you all the producer and you hate me. I don't hate you all the producer. I'm afraid we've got the evidence to prove otherwise. You could end it out. And then it'll seem like he's just been completely weirdly hallucinated. But you're talking to someone who you've already told you you hate. I immediately said I was, she's not going to say that. She went ooo in my ear.

And on that basis, what do we have here? Roger says, I may be one of the small number of listeners who actually turn up the volume and listen intensely when the laughter lifts, section is introduced. So really? We wouldn't want to miss any of the elevated hilarity, har and indeed har. However, my email today is to point out a mysterious coincidence. I noticed whilst watching the second of a couple

of recent films. It goes like this. In both cases, Margot Robbie plays an actress who visits a movie theatre to watch a film that she, the actress character, appears in. Yes. Also in both cases, Brad Pitt is in the real world movie. You might want to put it into a quiz. But anyway, the two movies are obviously once upon a time in Hollywood and Babylon, which is true. Margaret Robbie in both cases goes into watch a movie in which she starts. That's right. And Brad Pitt is in the real world. Hello to Jason Archibald, Isaacs, a superb performance, by the way, and down with the usual suspects. Thank you, Roger. Jen says, Heritage listener here, you may remember me as the intrepid American who purchased an

all-region Blu-ray player of dubious origin so she could watch bait during the COVID lockdown. Listening to the most recent extra take, such excellent value, I really enjoyed your banter with Jason about his habit of telling people about the podcast. In 2019, Jason was a celebrity guest at My City's Comic Con. Oh, was that because of Star Trek? There was no explanation here, but one imagine so. my city's Comic-Con. Well, I was at because of Star Trek. There was no explanation here, but one imagine so.

Well, I waited in line. The assistant asked me what I wanted him to sign and I explained that I was only there to say hello. She looked perplexed, but let me stay in line anyway. When it was my turn, I explained to him that I'm a member of the church and I simply couldn't miss an opportunity to say hello. He's face lit up, he shook my hand,

and we spend a few lovely minutes talking about your show. I will never forget how gracious and charming he was. It felt like I had received a special sacrament in the church. The shows were a bright spot in my life. Many thanks to you and the excellent production staff for the good cheer you bring every week. Thank you, Jen. And Jason, if you're listening, that was just, you know,

just for you. But you were indeed a blessing, and he was great fun last listening, that was just, you know, just for you. But you were indeed a blessing, and he was great fun last week. He was very good. I watched back on the YouTube, the Laft, the Lift, which he was in. Yes, he was very good. And what did he say at the phrase he used was, you read the Laft, the Lift, like somebody doing a microphone tech. Yeah, because I'm performing to an audience

that doesn't appreciate it. And I know we're into appreciate it. So I think that's basically the reason. See how I feel. So number 50. See how I feel. There's something in the bar. I'll try it again.

See how I feel. Where is that? Is that number 49? Number 50, there's something in the bar. I quite enjoyed it. If you want something slightly darker at Christmas and it turns out that it's killer elves, then this is the film for you. And of course, it's done that thing about, yes,

it's set in the foreign country, but the central couple are Americans who, therefore, most of the dialogue is in English. Matthew in London, I can't quite believe how bad this film was. I paid 10 pounds to stream it. and when my friends asked what it was, I explained the simple premise and that the good doctor enjoyed it, although he did say it wasn't gory enough.

Yeah. Halfway through, my friends piped up, are you sure he liked this? Yes, I replied. He said it was enjoyable and often funny. OK, he said maybe something amazing is going to happen. Well, we sat through. It was not any terrible Christmas comedy, but also a dire horror film. It was the worst of both worlds. But it's not a horror film.

Nada, none. The elves closed in and at no point did I have any feeling that what they were going to do was hurt our protagonist and spoiler alert, they largely don't. They just look. Well, except for the bit when threatening. When somebody goes through a snow plow. The death's a minimal and largely blood-free. The laughs are one note and depressingly obvious. The acting is wooden, the script is dull, honestly marked. How could you even likely recommend this absolute bore fest? There were moments, almost always, when the Norwegian, from the Norwegian cast, that garnered a few laughs,

the police officer, and the stall owner. But outside of that, good Lord, we couldn't wait for it to be over. A damp squib of a movie, a lifeless limp, messy, blood-free excuse for both a comedy and a horror, very, very disappointed Matthew and London. I think he was disappointed. Yeah, I'm finding this show quite hostile this week. That's Matthew and London.

Hmm. Well, I mean, I'm sorry that you did that, I mean, hey, that maybe I've just gone soft in the head, but I can't laugh a few times, and I kind of enjoyed it. And I thought the bit which the Norwegian police woman said she had to get back, because she was in the middle of love, actually, and she was just at the bit when he turns up with the written

boards. I haven't said that. I thought it was very fun. OK. I should have mentioned Maestro, by the way, because that has kind of been there. Well, it says not to plick click because it's to do with the, you know, it's the, it has a brief theatrical release.

It's a tada. And then it's, so limited theatrical, it's like it's only playing in certain numbers. So we did, we did a sort of, you know, a shorter review on last week's extra takes and we'll review it properly tada. When it comes to Netflix. And, I think it comes to Netflix.

I think it's all right. Rean Chapman, Simon Mark, as a film fan who is also gay, I'd like to raise a point about gay face. Now this is a magic Jason interview. Because one of the comments in advance of this my stroke film is that Leonard Bernstein, who is Jewish and gay, should be, people have said, the opinion is that should be played by either a Jewish actor and maybe someone who's gay, or anyway, so this came up. So, Rian says there have been, there have obviously been many great examples of straight actors playing gay characters. For example, Tom Hanks, if Philadelphia, all the way through

to Kate Blanchett in Tarr, and George McCuy, we could talk about as well in Femme. And I believe that straight actors should be able to play gay roles and gay queer actors should be able to play straight roles. Jason's clearly correct, the you can't or shouldn't judge someone's sexuality by looking at them. However, the problem arises if the majority of the gay roles are cast with straight actors and all the straight roles continue to be cast with straight actors and then we end up with

no out gay actors in high-profile films. It's great that we now have more visibility than ever before of gay trans and queer characters in TV and movies, but if this increased visibility roles doesn't result in an uplift and increased visibility of gay actors and other creatives, it's only a half-step forward. There can't be a blanket ban on straights playing gay as much as anything else, we have to acknowledge that it's sometimes the high profile straight actors involvement that gets a queer themed film made, but it is a more complicated topic than it is occasionally presented to be. Up with feminist wall colours and down with homophobes. Rean Chapman, thank you, Rean. So that's Maestro, which is out there. There's something in the bar number 50 you've done that.

Can I just say on the subject of that, on the subject of the Tom Hanks thing, where Philadelphia was made and the issue of this was raised, and I'm quoting Tom Hanks, I believe I'm quoting him accurately. The issue was raised, somebody said, should this role not have gone to a gay man? Tom Hanks said, okay, name me. What it needs is a stuff, name me the gay star that should have been doing it. The point that he was making at that point was that there were very, very few out gay actors. What he what he was saying was, well, you find, you can say that, but that will only happen

in a culture in which being at, you can still name, a fairly small number, the number of out gay actors, because there's this whole thing, this really weird assumption that if you are out and gay, people won't believe you in heterosexual roles, which is completely nuts because it's acting. It's like, you know, so, but I remember that was Tom Hanks' argument, was it's not, you know, tell me who the person is that you think should be doing this because you're, there isn't anyone who's at that point an A list actor who was out and gay.

I thought it was a well-made point. I remember discussing that with Philadelphia K-Mount. It was such a... to put that topic in the mainstream. With an actor like Tom Hanks was an incredible thing. For whatever, maybe right or wrong with that movie, it did absolutely, you know, do its subject matter in the most mainstream way possible. And yeah, um, Fem is at number 24, which I liked very much. I thought that I do think George because terrific in it. And I think it's a kind of really interesting twisty neo-noir thriller that plays very well with the kind of conventions

of the genre that it's drawing upon. And I think he's great and I think it's well directed from strong performances. How do you embellish in grade 6, viola approaching B2 German? I was delighted to hear your conversation with gorgeous George McCuy about his new film. My best friend Emily worked as a location manager on the film, and I hope that your list is will A, go out and watch it in droves, and B, think, wow, what great locations and management thereof. I'm reliably informed that she had to relay a particularly fruity line down the phone to someone from the council in order to get approval

to shoot a scene in a park. Whether she gave George a run for his money in the line, deliveries are unconfirmed. Huge world unto Emily, her esteemed colleague Hugo and the entire cast and crew hope it'll get a German release soon so that I can go and sit on the big screen and proudly yet code-completely exclaim when her name pops up on the credits. Very good. Thank you, Hattie. Number 11 is Eileen. I think Eileen's terrific. I think it's got two great performances by Anne Hathaway and Thomas and Mackenzie. Thomas and Mackenzie, I think, is just a wonderful rising star.

And this is directed by William Oldroyd, who did Lady Macbeth. And it is a, again, twisty psychological thriller drawing on noir traditions. And it has some gasp out loud moments. And the best thing is to know simply that Anne Hathaway described it as carol meets reservoir dogs and you don't need anything else beyond that.

Number 10 is Fallen Leaves. Again, this is Aki Karis-Maki. And I think Mubia doing it, Aki Karis-Maki sees an online and they've released this in Cinemas. I think it's one of Karis-Maki's most heartfelt films. It's got an incredibly eclectic soundtrack, which I love, but it's basically the story about two outsiders finding each other in difficult circumstances.

And I thought it was very touching and moving and darkly comedic. Ian says, just a list of remarks for you, full and leaves, which I caught at a preview at the lovely Curzon Camden last week. Very much agreed with Mark and enjoyed the film, but did Chuckle during his review when he said the film, the couple watched at the cinema, was Zombieland before later likening director Aki Kawasaki to Jim Jarmusch. This is because the film they see is not Zombieland.

Zombieland, though, it's not it's the dead don't die. Yes, sorry. Directed, of course, by Jarmusch. Jarmusch, yeah. Although for my money, whilst Jarmusch, is it a hard J? Jarmusch. Yes, Jim J. Fanpire flick, only Lovers left the life is fantastic. The dead don't die was rather disappointing

and nowhere near as good as Zombieland. Yeah, no, you're quite right in my mistake. Take the tongue and down with my pal Gary, who's no doubt listening to this and groaning. Okay, very, very personal and slightly niche. Trolls band together at number nine. Exactly what it says on the tin. Marvels at, oh, hang on. Trolls band together at number nine. Exactly what it says on the tin. Marvels at, oh hang on, Trolls,

but oh, I've got two at number nine. Oh, there you go. Ninth equal, Trolls band together and the Marvels. Yeah, well, the Marvels, I mean, it's now dropping quite fast. I thought it was a mess of a film, but we had a couple of emails from people who had really enjoyed it, and I'm glad they did. I just thought it was really messy.

We're putting Marvel's at number eight. Okay, fine. Anyway, number seven is Elf, which is the 20th anniversary of Elf. Once again, when ever you get to Christmas, suddenly the Christmas reissues turn up. Love actually was in the charts last week. So now it's Elf's turn.

Saltburn, it's six. I like it more than you do. I think I kind of really enjoy, I think. I kind of really enjoy it. I think Barry Keogans' terrific. I think that final, the murder on the dance floor sequence is really good. And I felt like it was her growing as a filmmaker. And Rolfo Nell, I thought she did really well. If your interview is still available as a podcast,

a couple of weeks ago, I'll have a listen. And I'm on at 5. This is, this wasn't press screened. This is an Indian Hindi language action drama directed by Sandy Reddy Vanga. I haven't seen it if you have send us a review. Number four is the Beyoncé concert film Renaissance. Number three, here number five in America is Wish,

which is the Disney celebrating its centenary film by basically, you know, referencing its back catalog in a film, which is nothing like as good as many of the films that it references. Hunger Games, the ballad of songbirds and snakes, too. Yeah, I'm pretty solid in America. Yeah, I'm not sure that we need it a prequel, but, you know, there it is. It's fine. And six in America, but the UK number one is Napoleon.

Napoleon. Dominic in Leeds, while sharing a pint with a mate in a cozy pub last week, I saw a bus drive past, advertising Siridly's new bio-epic. Few slips later, another bus, same film advert. Onto the second pint and another bus, and this one was advertising a different film, which appeared to be called upon Leon. Just like the Reels playing out of order in a Tarantino movie, the sticker of the panels had created a new title. Inspired by this,

not by the terrible trailer, I saw the movie a few days ago, it was preposterous nonsense. Thank you Dominic, Becky and Peoples. My husband and I went to see Napoleon the other night. We were both fairly non-plussed, neither loving nor hating it. However, I was completely discombobulated when a particular piece of music was played, not once but twice. At moments when Napoleon and Josephine were together. Was it things can only get better by D-Rim?

One of my, until recently, I would have described as guilty pleasures, but as Simon's insistence, I now just call them pleasures. Excellent, Becky, very good. It's 2005 film Pride and Prejudice starring Kiranitli. It's comfort watching. At its best for me, it's comfort watching. It's comfort watching. At its best for me. Hence, I know it pretty well. Okay, I've got that eventually.

Therefore, I was really confused and completely taken out of the moment when Dawn, by Dario Marionelli from Pride and Prejudice, was played in Napoleon. Did anyone else notice this? It's not on the official soundtrack for Napoleon. I know lots of music is used and movies over and over again, and maybe this is just because I know the Pride and Prejudice film so well that I found it so jarring, but it was particularly written for Pride and Prejudice. Does this often happen? Music written for one film is used in another. Well, that does happen quite a lot.

I mean, sometimes it happens, you know, referentially, like in the case of Quentin Tarantino, who is constantly taking pieces of music from, like, you know, a twisted nerve will turn up in Kill Bill or a cue that was written specifically for William Freakins nerve will turn up in kill bill or a cue that was written specifically for William Freakins cruising will turn up in death wish. So there's that. There's also then simply the taking a piece of music out of context, sometimes from another film, sometimes like in the case of the adageo, da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da didn't notice it happening in Napoleon. And I guess if you are in love with that piece of music and Brian Bredges, you're gonna go, oh, yeah, exactly, that's weird.

Why is that coming from? The place that happens quite a lot is in movie trailers. The Christopher Young's music for Jennifer 8 turned up in loads and loads of movie trailers. Larger, I think, because nobody saw Jennifer 8. So they thought I would just use that piece of music that Christopher Young did. Becky, thank you very much for the email.

Correspondents of Covena Mae.com. In a moment, we're going to talk Wonka with Paul King and Simon Farnaby. Okay, so today's guests are the co-writers of Wonka, Simon Farnaby and Paul King. Elata also the films director. Together, they wrote Paddington 2 and have gone on to do the same. One of the most talked about films of the year. You'll hear my interview with Paul King and Simon Farnaby after this clip from the movie. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you a brand new contraption of my creation. with Paul King and Simon and Funnabee after this clip from the movie. You walk as wild and wonderful, which you wash, you walk, or walk, or pleat, or make you say that again. Tittles gets to run, and I can have fun.

Scrum! Scrum! Just pop it out for a bit. I'll be back before I'll call. Until then, Tittles has agreed to scrub, scrub. And that's a clip from Wonka. I'm delighted to say I've been joined by Paul King, the director of the film. Hello. And Simon Farnaby, screenwriter, he also wrote it with Paul. Hello. Everything's the film. Hello. And Simon Fahlerby, screenwriter,

he also wrote it with Paul. Hello. Everything's the right way around. Completely correct. And the last time you were on the show, Simon was for Phantom of the Open. Correct, yeah. Back in the day.

So it's very nice to have you on the program. Thanks very much for talking to us. I should say before we go any further, we are surrounded by sweets. I've never seen so many bits of candy, a cola balls. Are these real? Well, I just ate a one, so if they're not,

I mean, a lot of people. The real bad, they've been fire-price. So they start. It's probably like, fish mongers say they never like to take fish home. Having worked on Wonka for a number of years, do you still like chocolate? Yes.

Yeah, I'm afraid so. All the time. Maybe fish is a bit more, I don't know, less sort of addictive than chocolate. I've now got a taste for fine chocolate because we had our own on set chocolate maker who was a genius. And I sort of assumed they would be, because I come from a world of cut price productions, that they would be horrible, foul, painted cardboard, and the actors would just spit them out afterwards.

But we had the most incredible props department who hired this wonderful world class chocolate maker, Gabriele Cooner. And she made these exquisite things and everything that is eaten is edible and completely delicious because she's perfectionist and so Monday morning was chocolate tasting day. What was the journey just to explain? So off the back of Pennington 2, explain how we've arrived at this film. Well, I was doing the very last review of the signing off the finished article with David Hayman, the producer, and we were finishing and I said, oh, we must find something else to do. Fishing for work, as I was, in that my student would be unemployed state. He said, well, I do have an idea. I've

only really got two words, which is young Won wonker. And I thought that sounded very interesting, because I loved Charlene Chalk Factory growing up. But origin stories, not always the perfect thing that you feel you necessarily want to see. So I went back and read Charlene Chalk Factory again. It's a book I loved growing up, and I had this old 1980s paperback with the quantum lake illustrations and I read it 100 times until the pages without it and loved it.

And I remembered the Willy Wonka and the Ompelum person, the large life grotesque characters that populate it. Reading it again as a grown-up, I realized what I'd forgotten was how incredibly emotional it is. And it's sort of got this extraordinary sort of de-kenzy and spine to the story with this sort of long-suffering little boy. And it's really incredibly moving. And at the end, when he gets not just the chocolate that he craves

and needs, but inherits the whole factory, I was sort of in floods of tears. And I sort of realized that what I'd somehow forgotten was what role Dahl was doing with this sort of big comedy and huge heart was exactly what I've been trying to do in the Paddington films. And I thought, well, this is an amazing opportunity to sort of stand on the shoulders of this giant storyteller and sort of do something that felt like it could chime with the sort of thing we like to write. So Simon did Paul come to you and say young Wonka and that was it?

He did, yeah. Not on the dog shout his young Wonka through the last box and ran away. It was something like that. We were in a car going to or from somewhere and... You thought I was trying to cast you I think. I went to I accept I accept I do resemble a young Jim Wilder. Thank you He was a 38 when he played that part was he and you're 67 oh my god Barely 42 anyway So no, he did say what do you think about doing a young wonka?

And then Paul sort of pitch, he had a, he said, all I've got is a guy turns up in a city with a bag of, like, you know, he's got holes in his coat and, you know, and a bag of sort of chocolates and, and immediately just loved that starting point, you know, and I ended up being the starting point of the movie. But just to go take that character that we all know and love sort of embodied by Jim Wilder and then go rewind that to somebody, because that's someone who's been through a lot.

And there's a lot clues in the book to what he's been through and his travels around the world. But rewind and go, what if he's just a bright-eyed guy with a tinker sounding as chocolate? Chocolate and this idea, I said to probably could have a little flag that he pops up and go, what if he's just a bright-eyed guy with a tinker, certainly he's chocolate. Chocolate's an idea, I said to Paul, he could have a little flag that he pops up, and it's quite pathetic.

Paul really laughed, and that ended up being the genesis of the whole thing. So, you were both enthused with the idea. It's been suggested by a top producer. You're both excited with it. Was it always going gonna be a musical? Was that always gonna be at the heart of it? I think we wanted to make something

that was a companion piece to the 71 movie, which obviously has these extraordinary songs in it and that are really endured, especially on Pulumper and Pure Imagination, which are stonking classics, really. And I think it also appealed to me as a sort of a weapon to tell a role dial story. Like he has these sort of long, long poems which are supposed to be songs in the books. And it's sort of, he's always breaking into verse and you know, wrote the revolting rhymes.

And he, there's a great sort of musicality in rhythm, how he writes, even when he's writing prose. And it felt very sort of appropriate for the role dial universe, especially if we wanted to make something that wanted to sit alongside that film. And I think a kind of a guiding principle for me anyway. And I think both of us was really sort of what would that team have done had they been tasked with sort of making a kind of young wonker film or be it with all the technology and trickeries that we have nowadays. Did Roll, Dal try and write an early story? I mean, it's the only character he wrote a sequel for in the Great Glass Elevator, and

then he wrote another short story after that. And there's bits and pieces that he sort of flirted with. But mainly the sort of earlier stuff is in Charlie and the Shocked Factory, and there are different versions, but the stories of his younger life that Grandpa Joe tells. So he's definitely a character he felt could exist at different times and in different places. And that was, I think, great because it also gives you confidence to think this great storyteller might have not thought this was a terrible idea rather than be turning into a different type of thing.

Yeah, things like Fickle Gruber, prognosis and slugweth, where I remember reading as a kid and going to this. These are the chocolate cups. These are the rivals, you know, who rolled out a looted to as stealing all his recipes and what would probably be after this story. But I always was really intrigued by, I mean the names are incredible as a kid and you're prognosis fickle group like who are these these people you know and what and so so that was a great license to go you know that was one of the early sort of ideas we can have those those guys and when Willie comes to town in his you know with his tinker and he's up against these giants of the chocolate world and

that felt really exciting and yeah and it was the first thing that the Dal Estate gave missions to explore a story beyond the canon, as it were. And one of our producers was actually, his Luke Kelly's actually role-diles grandson, and was running the kind of the estate at the time. And he was a great sort of a rudder, I think, for trying to sort of keep us tonally our message where which is great to have those sort of fresh eyes because occasionally you might sort of go down the thing and it's like well not really quite sure that's it's in that universe. And I think our aspirations were to do something that was entirely respectful to the source

material I'm very dali. Do the songs have to come first? Could you actually even begin to cast the film or begin to dream up the scenes? Because the music has to be there at the heart, doesn't it, right, at the beginning? Well, with our first draft, we wrote a script and we sort of, as we were writing, became aware that there could be a song here

and there could be a song there. So we sort of tried to write. It was led by the story, I think. We went, yeah, this is a sort of place where a song could move the story along, was really where we got to. I suppose, and we didn't really know where pure imagination would go. And obviously the umpulumpa song is when the umpulumpa turns off. But the others were just dictated to it with the story, you know.

Timothy Shalamey has to carry the whole thing, obviously. Was he the only person in your mind how difficult was it? just dictated to it with a story, you know. Timothy Shalemay has to carry the whole thing, obviously, was he the only person in your mind how difficult was it? I mean, I didn't even know you could sing and dance. I'm sure if I'd done some research, I could have found that, of course, that he did. But you're asking a lot of your stuff. Yeah, and I think the difference between this and Charlie

is that Charlie carries the emotional story of Charlie and the Choctop actually. And Willy Wonka is this kind of Wizard of Oz and the Choctop Actually, and Willy Wan cause this kind of Wizard of Oz character who pops up in his magical and able to do these extraordinary things, but he's not really where the heart is. In this, it's all about Willy and it's all about, you know, he's the emotional heart of the story as well as the kind of comic engine and the kind of source of magic. I knew, to me, was a phenomenal actor from Call Me By Your Name and Lady Bird, and I knew he had

sort of all the acting chops and I thought he would be perfect, he just feels like Willy Wonka, but obviously we were aware we were making a musical and so I wanted to check whether he could sing and because we live in the most absurd time in human history, Timmythe's high school musical performances are on the internet and have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, which I count myself very lucky that none of my school performances have been committed to memory. So that, and there he is singing son time and being fantastic and say when we started talking about it, I knew that he could do it and he'd been to this performing arts high school and I think he was quite appealed to him to show off some of the things that he'd learned as a kid. But he was really happy to, I remember when I first met him in the sort of first rehearsal

and I'd just seen bones and all, you know. Very similar film. And I think I made that joke. I went, hey, I watched bones and all, you know what, this is pretty much the same thing. And he laughed and he went, you know, people don't realize, I'm a song and dance man. And I thought, well, there they don't.

I mean, enough of an opportunity, Shadow, I think the key role is the Dopey Zoo keeper. Well, and everything revolves around him. How did you get that role, Shadow? I'm glad you've spotted that because not many people have come in at that angle. And you're right, it is a movie about a security guard who gets caught up in these chocolate wards. And really, it's a... You're the emotional part. It's a lonely, in the emotional part. It's amazing you have so few scenes.

Can this guy find love? That's a big question on everyone's lips. And that was, there's always a security guard in our things because we have one of the sets of my tears. That we always break into something. Because that's fun and people like that. And so if you have a break in, you need a small obstacle it can be easily overcome by a dose excuse you think of you as a small obstacle? A large obstacle that has to be overcome

but it is a very similar character. I mean it is deliberately the same character as I've done before. I want to at least mention before I completely run out of time want to make is it Carla Lane? Kayla. Kayla Lane as noodle is fantastic, really, really wonderful. Obviously Hugh Grant as the umpul umpur is extraordinary. But in our final minute, I just, what, I went in thinking, do we really need a young wonker?

Within 10 minutes, the answer was manifestly yes. Oh, a few. I've gone two ways. No, no, no, it's definitely. And it's not cynical. I'm looking at you, Simon. I don't know why. But as to the people who created this, it could have been, you know, Roldale takes us into dark places and there are some Olivia Colman,

he's great as the, you know, the bad character, but it's not a cynical film. And I think that's why it was, it almost had the spirit of Mary Poppins. That's what I would. Yeah. Fair? I think that's what I would. Yeah. Fair? I think that's true. Yeah. You feel reluctant to answer. Do you mean his character? Do you mean his character? The whole thing. No, I think it's not a political tool.

I think that's what's so great about role-dull is he does have these dark characters and these grotesque characters. But at the end, Wright tends to be done. And Matilda will find the happy home, and Charlie will inherit the chocolate factory. And there's also a sense of optimism. And I think that's why the story's so successful. It's so emotionally invested that when things finally come right,

the relief is just kind of overwhelming. We were tragedy. But we were taken by the end of people who always say this thing about Willy Wonka, and that he's dark. And if you look at the end of Charlie and Chocolate Factory, it's absolutely joyous and delightful. And you see the guy was trying to find someone

to give his life over to you know, to give the Chocolate Factory to a kid, which is an incredibly kind thing to do. And we sort of built around that as sort of, you know, yes, he's gonna, he's the, he's, there's bitterness and there's tragedy on the way that makes him that willy-wank, but this is very early. And we just wanted to make something quite sort of centered around that sort of joyous.

I saw it as a critique of capitalism, really. The film. Yeah. There is an element. I mean, we were interested in greasing all its forms, really, I think, because that's very much the kind of driving force of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The greedy and the needy, it comes up at a time and time again. Yeah, and kind of, so all of our villains agree in a different way. And I think Willie is somebody who wants to share his chocolate with the world because we were interested in that contradiction in a way of being sort of a chocolate maker and chocolate vendor, but equally in in the book, and the movie, he sort of gives away shock factories, the least smart business move you could possibly make.

And it felt like he was sort of somebody who existed in that world but wasn't drawn to being a chocolate maker, make money he wanted to share his creations with the world. And that seemed a very noble and lovely thing. Yeah, what do you do with chocolate? You can eat it on, stuff your face, or you can share it. I mean, not share.

It's a poser, though, isn't it? Because they're both tempting. I mean, I just stuff my face, and then see what's left when I'm too sick to. Then you hand me the jar. You can have the rest. No. Paul King's time to finally be thank you, Reddett.

Thanks very much for talking to us. Thank you very much. Thanks very much. Glad you enjoyed it. I had someone just to my left telling me it was time to stop. But there's a wrap it up. Wrap it up. No, absolutely.

And I was just imagining having someone who you're working alongside, in fact, who's working for you, who just makes fantastic chocolate chocolate. Yes, whatever you want. Your personal chocolate here, well, an amazing thing. That should be a film. The three chocolate ears. Well, there are kind of three chocolate ears. Yes, exactly.

Which is always magnificent, no? All with fantastic names, yeah, absolutely. Anyway, so Wonka is... Is this the movie for Christmas? Is this the Christmas movie? Well, I think it is. The family movie, I think it is. Yes, I presume it is going to be a huge Christmas hit.

As you've probably already seen, there's two major broadsheets, one by someone of this parish, who have gone full five stars on the film. So the critics seem to be absolutely loving it. There are no critics. No, no, I'm working on it. So just to recap, they're basically, so it is a pre-chocolate factory, Wonker,

which he arrives, he attempts to set himself up as a chocolate here, but he meets resistance at every turn. Olivia Coleman runs his guest house where he doesn't read the small print and immediately finds himself in prison for the next 13 years having to do the laundry and not to pay off his bills. You've got the chief of police who's interested in the whole place is being run by this kind of chocolate cartel, this chocolate mafia cartel, and then you've got Rowan Atkinson as far the Julius who is a chocolate hoarding print. Another of Rowan Atkinson as far the Julius, who is a chocolate hoarding print. And another of Rowan Atkinson's, I wonder if he took a lot of persuading to be a priest

being like in a place, slightly sinister cleric, is Rowan Atkinson busy? So the film has songs written by Neil Hannon, a divine comedy of whose work I have always been a fan. And actually one of the things that's weird is that hearing the songs, I think you can hear them almost as divine by Neil. Yes, because one of the things about his songs is they've always had a sort of a theatrical kind of slightly removed performance element. I mean, I really like them.

I know if you don't like divine comedy, you really don't like divine comedy, but I've always found them to be a very interesting song. Right, right. So I think that kind of works for other well, and then scored by Joby Tolbert. So during that interview, Paul King says, origin story aren't necessarily what you want. Will, do we need young Wonka,

and they're called that's because they pitched it? And you said that what happened was you went in thinking, I don't particularly need a Willy Wonka origin story. That was my mind taking it in. And then 10 minutes in, you thought, oh no, I absolutely do. So here's what I feel about it. I think the performance is a very good.

I think Olivia Coleman and Tom Davis are a great double act, particularly when he gets into the later hosen, which is a plot point, which is kind of too complicated to explain. It's funny. It works. But essentially there is. There is a wearing of later hosen, which is done to great comic effect. An Olivia Coleman, I think, is very funny. Kayla Lane is terrific as Noodle. I realized, of course, that I had seen her before in Chris Morris' The Day shall come. She's clearly a star. And actually, she pretty much dominates the stuff that she's in because she's so confident.

And she's such a sort of a captivating presence that she and Timothy shall make together. Very good. Yeah. And I think that Hugh Grant is, well, Hugh Grant is never anything less than funny now, is because at the end of Paddington, Paddington 2 is stolen by Hugh Grant, and the end of Paddington 2, the credit see because when he does the theatrical performance in the prison, he's probably one of the, you know, one of the great endings. I did have an issue with the Hugh Grant CG effect thing because the way they do it is it's Hugh Grant big head, you know, tiny, tiny body. And I never felt that the CG settled down to make me fit. I never, I always had a problem with whatever was going on with this. I was looking at thinking,

what is it? They CG this face on to. What, how they, you know, and whatever the answer is, I thought that that was a bit wobbly. You or not? No, no, okay, fine. But he is very. He's an umpulumpa, so he's going to look weird. So yeah, no, but there's something, it's, umpulumpa looking weird is fine, but umpulumpa looking CG weird is, anyway, I found that distracting, but I think Hugh Grant is really, I mean, he has absolutely found his metier in this period of his career, and when you're doing sort of

fascical pompous characters, he is absolutely, you know, the go-to guy. As far as Shalameh's concerned, I'm not a big Timothy Shalameh fan, I have to be honest, and okay, so this is a role which Gene Wilde absolutely owned. Johnny Depp, I think I never really got the Johnny Depp thing. And I

think that Timothy Shalame is somewhere in between the two of them. I still think, in the obviously it's a generational thing, Gene Wilde will always be my screening creation of that character. I was surprised by how much he is a song and dance man, I didn't know that. I'd been up because I'd been seeing him and seeing him dance. I think he's fine.

I think he's fine. You thought he was great. No, because I was just surprised by how much I was enjoying the whole thing. So when it starts, there's a ship that's arriving. I mean, goodness knows where it's arriving because it appears to be France. And he's swinging around the mast. Yeah, he's swinging around the mast, but when he gets there, it's full of kind of weird, look, everyone speaks with

a London accent, so it's clearly not France, but it clearly is France, but then all the police are dressed as they come from Italy. So it kind of doesn't really matter, but the very first thing that happens is, Shalamay is a top the mast and singing, I was thinking, oh, okay, here we go. He's going to start singing. And then anyway, he arrives and I thought, no, I'm actually really enjoying this. And I thought it was Laugh Fat Loud Funny. And he is, you know, he's, I don't know. He can sing and dance and he can sing and dance.

And so, because I was laughing out loud, much more than I thought I would. I thought, oh, this more than I thought I would. This is good, no, fine. All right, so to answer the very specific questions that you brought up, do we need a young wonker? You say, you're telling me to? Apparently, yes.

I thought, I don't know, okay, maybe. I mean, maybe we can get away with a young wonker. You said, it's not cynical. And what you meant was that the film isn't, doesn't have cynicism in it. Although, you know, one has to admit that any version of kind of, you know, revisiting a popular character, there's a certain kind of movie-making cynicism. Oh, of course.

So I'm not sure that it's completely without cynicism. You mentioned the spirit of poppins. There is very specifically visual quotation of poppins, that is absolutely undeniable. I think talking about the spirit of poppins is a very high bar, and I don't think it's on the same level as that. I'm not as good as, but I think it channeled elements of poppins, but I'm not quite on the same page as the... So I'm just trying to sort of work through this methodically. I thought it was very funny that when you said that thing, but I think it's a critique of capitalism, and I couldn't quite tell when you said it.

You said it as a gag or a thing, but of course that thing, the greedy and the needy, of course that's actually. It comes up a whole number. That whole number of times, and he's sort of at the center of it. So in the end, I think this, I love the Paddington movies. I thought this was fine. I'm slightly surprised by how well it's gone down,

but then quite often, I don't quite get things. And I thought it was fine. I wasn't swept off my feet, I wasn't taken out of myself. I thought the individual elements were really well done. And there are plenty, a lot of them, I do think the son, son, son, son, the security guard character is sentry. The film.

But there's a lovely kind of pantomime silhouette show of him eating the chocolate and having the various layers of what's going on in the chocolate. And I thought that was actually one of the funniest sequences in the one the best sequences in the film, in which you sort of, you know, it is literally a silhouette show of him going through all these stages of emotion as this chocolate, which is a party in a chocolate works out. I could have done with more of that personally, but I think it's fine.

You think it's really good. Two of the major broadsheets here, think it's five stars. It's got hit written all over it. It has. But it doesn't touch me at a heart level. The only... This is slightly preposterous. But when it starts and role Dahl's name comes up at the top... It just... Oh, yeah, that's right.

Terrible anti-seemite. I remember all this stuff, you know. I remember in the same way that I cannot look at HP Lovecraft ever again without knowing all of the things that he thought. So you have to sort of, you have to, part to one side. As David Bidil has said, you know, Roll-Dowell, one of the greatest children's writers.

And also, had some horrible opinions. You have to, I opened my PhD with a quote from Lovecraft. And, you know, I mean, I didn't know at the time, but it's like, yeah, but so what do I do? Do I go, you know, it was, yeah, but now you know what you know. When you've seen Wonka, let us know what you think. Correspondents are Kevin and Mayor.com. This seems to be an enormously appropriate time marked to enter. Everyone's favorite lift. It's the lift that's marked laughter.

It is indeed the laughter lift. Okay, I'm gonna enjoy it this week. Excellent. I'm gonna try and convince Jason if he's listening. And I'm really gonna sell these jokes. Yeah, go on. Not like a mic tech.

No, I'm gonna try not do it like a mic tech. Let's shoot. Play the music. Hey Mark! Hey Simon! Yes Simon! In the midst of all this cold weather, I've been thinking about a nice warm summer holiday. Excellent.

I can't help but remember a holiday from the 70s in Spain as a Callow youth. Fell head over heels in love with a German girl called Helga. Finally plucked up the courage to ask her for a telephone number one day, but no luck. Couldn't get past the number nine Had an argument with the I'm selling it. Yeah, it's a good sell it. How'd an argument with a good lady? Stramas his terrible sweet mark. I asked it if I was the only one she'd ever been with she said yes They're all the others were nine and ten's hey

In trying to lose a few pounds ahead of the festive excesses, Mark. Yes. I've been wearing bread on my head because it's a new loaf hat diet I'm trying. Ha ha ha! There you go, Jason. Is that good enough for you? Hey, testing, testing. Is this on? Be back after this.

Unless you're a van Goddienst, in which case we have just one question. If the entire planet fought each other, one on one, how many bouts would there be before there was one world champion? There's a movie pitch, by the way. That would be a big movie, not a CGI. Anyway, the answer in a moment. So if the entire planet fought each other one on one, how many bouts would they have to be before those one world champions? So this is like world celebrity death match.

Yes. Go on. What's the answer? I've got no idea. 33. Oh, that's a smaller number than I thought. The number would halve with every round. So 8 billion would become 4 billion, 2 billion, one billion, five hundred million,

two hundred and so on, and it would come all the way down. Okay, there we go. So that's maybe not such a big movie after all. No. Dear Dr. Chris and Dr. Cringle, this is David Muir from Glasgow, two-time winner of the dressing up race, merrily primary school, 1973 and 1974.

I know I'm linked to the best opening lines party, but I thought the show on the first Friday in December would be a good time to suggest a variation, namely best opening line of a Christmas song. Okay, good. I have two suggestions, wizard. I wish it could be Christmas every day. I admit this one is more of a sound effect than a lyric

But it begins with a ring of a cash register. A chain, isn't it? Closely followed by Roy Wood blowing a raspberry at the choir of children. What could be more Christmasy than that? Though a cash register sound is one of those, what's that, Dad? Yeah. Okay, well, you just have to put your fingers up seven hours. Open all hours. Kitching.

Do you remember the cash register in open all hours? I do. And it was snapped back in the suit. But that whole kitching, nothing goes kitching anymore. No, it doesn't. No, no, no. It goes. And also says David, the darkness, Christmas time, don't let the bells end.

How does that begin? Faining joy and surprise at the gifts we despise over Maldwine with you. To somewhat cynical takes, as David on the Christmas song, but all the more memorable as a result. Then he would... Christmas! I didn't... Never quite... I never quite got them.

Were they the new wave of British heavy metal? Not wobble, whatever it was called. At a lower stoffed. Yes. At a lower stoffed. They. At a lower stoffed. They were. The new wave of lowest stoffed. And Bob Harris was a big fan.

Anyway, well, Tickety Tonkin down with Bar Humbug says David Miraf. David, thank you very much indeed. So we were hoping that Julie Roberts was going to be on the show, then a plane was late. So in the case of Julie Roberts, it would have been her plane. It would, yeah, privately landed, but it was too late to be included. Anyway, the movie is Leave the World Behind, which is a Netflix film. Yeah, so it's, it is, it opened in cinemas last week

and it comes to Netflix today. Psychological thriller adapted from a novel by Roman Alam, directed by Sam Esmel, who was the show runner on Mr. Robot. And at the beginning, there's an exec producer credit for. Well, it's really, because it is one of those pause discussed in the room. It's Barack and Michelle Obama.

Yes, which, I mean, obviously, of course, they're out there doing stuff in the real world, but it is just like, and he always publishes a list of his favorite movies and his favorite book, precisely so on. So it would have come, well, they are both very culturally connected. You know, they both read and see and listen and, you know, and, unlike some others who came afterwards.

Oh, I see what you're saying. So Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are a couple who decide to get away from it all with it. I think what you're saying, by the way, is if you asked Barack Obama for his favourite Bible verse, he would probably be able to quote a few. Yes, and also to quote it beautifully. Yes. And then to contextualize why it was that particular thing. You do the sermon. And then mention a couple of different translations of that particular thing.

And then tell an anecdote about how somebody in his family had actually turned to that particular thing during a great, and singing him. And singing him. Yes's all of those. Yes. Oh, God, it's like Camelot, isn't it? It's like, it shall not come. Yes, it's not. Anyway, Julia Rob's Nathan Hall, there are a couple,

very, very early on, she realizes that she hates people. So she decides that they're going to get away from her. She does. She does. She hates people. So they want to get away from it all. They have kids. She's a man,. She hates people. So they want to get away from it all. They have kids. She's a man, and he's clay.

And she says that she's booked this dream house. For them to go and stay in for a while. And they're going now. And he goes, now, she says, yeah, I booked it. It's what happened in, fine. So they go there, and it's great. They get to this place. I mean, it must be owned by a billionaire.

Presumably, everything about it is high tech. It's got incredible, you know, outlook and it's, you know, remote and pool swimming pool swimming with the whole the whole nine yards. Whilst they are there on holiday, something strange happens, which is that they are on a beach and they see in the distance a great big oil tanker. And the oil tanker appears to be getting nearer, and it appears to be getting nearer. And then it appears to be very, very near indeed, running a ground near, in fact. It's a really well rendered sequence.

Yes, it's very good. They go back to the house and they discover that things aren't working. The internet's not working properly. I mean, you know, there's no big deal, but it means that the daughter in the family who's desperate to see the final episodes of Friends can't see it because the internet's working

and she could not work and she can't download it. And then in the middle of the night, there is a knock at the door. Here's a clip. You must be Amanda, Amanda Sanford, right? You two know each other? No. We have not had the pleasure of meeting face to face.

I'm GH. GH Scott. George. He's George. That's how it reads in his email. Oh. Forgive me. I forgot.

See, this is why I much prefer life before the Internet. Because we would have spoken on the phone, we would recognize my voice, and known that this is our house. I'm sorry? This is our house. I'm the Georgia email back and forth with. No, I remember the name. I just, this is your house.

So what's going on in that scene? Okay? That's my hersial alley, turns up and says, he's fantastic. He's fantastic in absolutely everything. Police says, this is my house and she looks in like, this is your, what do you mean this is your house? Now, what's confusing her about that?

Well, it's, you know, one of the readings is clearly that it's, sorry, this is your house, but you're an African-American. You can't possibly be the person that owns his house. You never says that, never says it out loud, and the film never explicitly kind of, you know, goes to that place, except a little later on the sort of tension starts to arise. They say it's him with his daughter, they say they got stranded, they need to stay the night, they apologize, you see, if you can't we put the house, he says, look, let me make

it right, okay? I will pay you back, you know, whatever it was that you paid for. All we need to do is sleep downstairs because there's a basement downstairs. He sort of proves that he knows his way around the house because he knows that he knows how to get into the drinks cabinet and he knows where things are. There's a couple of things that don't quite seem to do. Also, there are no photographs of him or his family, although Ethan Hawks says, yes, but if you rent out a house, you take away the photographs because you're making into things.

So there's a certain level of ambiguity. As far as Clay is concerned, he's OK, fine, I buy. I take the guy at least word and he's got the money. He's got the thing. Julia Roberts is hanging on. Hang on, we're in a house with my kids. I don't know this person. I know who they are.

They're going to sleep downstairs. You're happy with this, I'm not happy with it. And then there are also other questions, like the story that they tell about what we, you know, we got stranded, we couldn't get, but I left my jacket, I didn't have the keys to the room. Something's not quite right. Now to say any more would be to spoil the film, except that to say that for all the sort of external trappings, why is the internet down? What is going on? Essentially, it's a story about four people in a house,

and some other character of the young character. Four people in a house not trusting each other, not quite knowing exactly why they don't trust each other. And it's a drama which is about race and class and identity and paranoia and trust and a bunch of things, but brilliantly, it's dressed up as a kind of, and is it a disaster movie?

Well, if it's a disaster movie, and what was the thing with the tanker running around? What's the thing with the internet being off? Do you remember 10 Cloverfield Lane? I remember you talking about it. It's a film in which the whole thing takes place in a basement, in which somebody wakes up, they're tied up in a basement, and they're told that they're there because there's been an alien invasion. But really, what it's all about is what's going on in the house. It also, I think, totally had something of annihilation, which was a science fiction movie that Barack

Obama, or incident, included in his list of his favorite films of the year when it came out. And I thought that was a really interesting touchstone because I think this has something of that in it. I thought it did a terrific job of revealing only gradually what's going on in the story. I thought the performances were really well done. I thought the tensions between them were really well done. I think the way in which, I mean, it's that thing that you want.

It's smart, entertaining, fair, that on the one hand is a, maybe it's a genre movie, maybe it's a disaster movie, maybe it's a science fiction movie, but actually, it's really, it's about other things, but it's dressed up in those clothes to make it entirely accessible. I thought that idea about, if there's a disaster, it's an internal disaster, it's a domestic disaster, worked really well. It's also got an absolutely beautiful sting in the tail. I thought, hey, it was one of the films that

when it ended, I went well done. That is a really, really good ending. One of the reasons why I was five minutes in, and I was just, I'd read the book, and interviewed Roman and I'm the author of the book. And one of the reasons why it was such a huge hit is it came out in lockdown. So the book is about, well, it starts as four people stuck in a house,

which then becomes six people stuck in a house. So is the book very different? No, no, no, so they have six, so there's two people that you get to get to get to. And then it's different in as much as Maharshal Ali character arise with his wife rather than his daughter. Right. Okay. But it's a lockdown book. So it comes out in lockdown and there are six people in a house trying to get on with tensions. And that's exactly what they've got in this particular film. And there's one other thing, which I think is okay to, I okay, I mentioned it in the interview,

I just go with, there is something about someone's teeth falling out, which is really, absolutely horrific. When you're thinking, you know, in horror movies, any other, you've seen a lot worse than that, but there is something out. I kept thinking he's gonna wake up, and this is a dream, and he go, no, no,

it's not a dream. His teeth are falling out. And I have a, I've got terrible, terrible teeth. And there's one of these things. If you dream about your teeth falling out, it's meant to mean a bunch of stuff. In my case, if I dream about my teeth falling out, it's because my teeth are falling out.

That scene of teeth falling out is absolutely horrible. And as we've discussed many times on this program before, if a deer turns up in a movie, run, you're in trouble. And there are so many deer in this film, you know which way it's going to go. I thought it was great, though. I really enjoyed it. It's on Netflix, isn't it?

It's on Netflix now. It's been in cinemas for a week. It's on Netflix now. The world behind, isn't it? And of course, the other thing, just because you mentioned the Barrake of Armthing, is that because there's sort of maybe end of the world, these stuff happening outside of this house, being a former president, he would know precisely what the government is doing. I mean, we don't see it's not about the government. It's

not about the government. But also, so it raises the interesting question about who is Mahershal Ali's character? Yes. What does he know and what doesn't he know? Yeah. I thought it was really well judged. Time for this week's listener correspondence. If there is something movie related happening near, you tell us about it, attach your old,

you know, you reading out something. Yeah. And send it to correspondence at curbinamoe.com like this. Hi, Mark and Simon. Like Parker here from the Notion Symphonic Window Custard. I'd like to bring to you attention our memorable moments concert that we are performing along with the Nottingham Wind ensemble on the 16th of December. It is a family-oriented concert of classic film music and Christmas favourites.

So if you'd like to hit James Bond and meet the incredible's on the Polo Express, on the way to Jurassic Park to look for ET, join us at the Albhurt Nottingham on the 16th December at 11 in the morning. Tickets from Eventbrite or go to our website, nsw.org.uk for further information. Thank you. Hello Mark and Simon. This is Simon Brute from Film Stories and I want to tell you about an event I've been trying to get going for years. On Friday December the 15th at Picture House Central in London is a very, very rare screening of Kenneth Branagh's almost forgotten Christmas film in the bleak midwinter in 35 millimeter. And guess who we've

got for a Q&A afterwards? Chuckles is coming along himself. All our profits for this go to center point. If you go to the Picture House, his website search for a brand new, you'll find tickets there. What a terrific idea. What a terrific idea. Both of us are very close, so you had Mike Parker regarding a film with Jason Conzard of Christmas film music. I love the, I love the sentence in which

it was the thing on the public's press, looking free tea in the Jurassic. I love that was very well. Mike did that very well. So that's a terrible, holy not to him. And Simon Brue talking about a special Ken Branner event, raising money for center point, which is in the middle of London. And in the Bleak Wee Winter is a lovely, lovely film.

And Chuckles is Yuckles is there. Well done Simon, that is not you Simon Simon. No, not the other Simon. That's a coup. Send your audio trailer to Correspondence at CurvenaMail.com. That's the end of take one. This has been a Sony Music Entertainment production. of take one. This has been a Sony music entertainment production. This week's team Lily Gully, Vicki, Zachy, Matty, Mikey, Bethy, Hany, does work, Hannah and Simon, the remote redactor. I can't come in. This isn't trained. Yeah, so I'm going to extra on the train, instantly later on. So you can actually get to Exeter, but he can't come in from just down the road. Barnet or wherever it is. Mark, what is your film of the week? Leave the world behind. Thank you.

Get in touch. Tell us what you think. Correspondence at CoventaMayah.com. Also, take two has landed alongside this particular podcast. I love it when you do that. Also, take three with your questions and your shmestions will be with you on Wednesday. you