Paul King responded to internet snark.

The idea of an origin story to the classic 1971 film "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" caused a lot of angst on the internet. The first image of Timothée Chalamet in his top hat and velvet coat earned him comparisons, but not to Wilder. knives were out when the trailer hit last summer as people mocked the actor's voice and declared he had been miscast. We defended Wonka early on because it was written and directed by Paul King, the co-writer and director of both Paddington and Paddington 2. We can confirm that it's not only a joyous rebellion against cynicism but also one of the best films of the year. What has it been like for King to see his movie getting torn apart online months before anyone sees it? In an interview, King responded to the people who hated him with the kind of compassion you might expect from him. "Obviously, you make a movie, and you hope that everyone in the world will love it," King said. He said that the backlash that came from the very first video was similar to that of Paddington, when Colin Firth was still attached to voice the eponymous bear. King thinks that people feel justified in protecting something that belongs to the world. I understand the fear of reinventing what they've loved, as well as the reticence about whether is going to be an honorable companion. "Our goal was to do something that Dahl would be proud of or would sit within his world, and that was our goal from the beginning," King said. To that end, the filmmaker explained how he and co-writer Simon Farnaby worked with the descendants of the seminal children's writer to keep in line with his works. "We've worked closely with his grandson, who's one of our producers, and it's not just professional anxiety but deeply personal anxiety," King said. King noted that this is the first story the Dahl estate has ever endorsed outside of the books. We were conscious of the responsibility and I hope that when people see the movie that they respond and feel that it has been done with love.