STRANGE GOINGS-ON `CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY' CHURN OUT PLENTY OF TIM BURTON-STYLE QUIRKINESS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

With ``Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,'' Johnny Depp and Tim Burton wanted to erase the past, but for entirely different reasons.

Burton sought to blot out the memory of ``Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,'' the 1971 movie adaptation of Roald Dahl's well-loved children's classic that starred Gene Wilder and is, in fact, well-loved itself by some people.

``Bad movie,'' Burton says matter-of-factly. ``People remember it fondly because they saw it when they were kids and, in their memories, it is great. My advice: Keep that memory pure. Don't go back and watch it again.''

Depp did see ``Wonka'' as a child and found Wilder's voice playing in his head whenever he thought about how he'd play the candy man. Depp's solution: Think of what Wilder would do and then take the opposite tack.

``I had to take it far away from the area where Gene Wilder had romped,'' Depp says. ``Fortunately, I had that amazing material by Roald Dahl. There's such dark and light in that story and such a subversive undertone and a twisted, perverted side to the character. I just ran in the direction that would seem right to me.''

And there, in a nutshell, you have the new (and, yes, improved) version of ``Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,'' a film that strips away the gooey excesses of the 1971 movie in favor of a fidelity to Dahl's written word. That means Willy Wonka is no longer a father figure to Charlie. (Charlie's dad is alive and well and a role model to boot.) Willy Wonka doesn't sing - that's left entirely to the Oompa-Loompas. And there is no golden goose; instead, in one of the movie's most fantastic scenes, we get Dahl's room of nut-shelling worker squirrels.

``The other picture strayed a great deal,'' producer Richard Zanuck says. ``This is the book, the real deal as much as possible.''

Says Burton: ``The first movie deviated from the spirit of the book. And this one could have done the same. It had been developed by the studio for a long time and with a lot of writers. And you get the Hollywood thing, not what Dahl intended. 'Let's make Charlie more proactive.' Let's take out the father and make Willy Wonka the father figure.' And my reaction was, 'Willy Wonka is about the furthest thing from a father figure as you can get.' To me, he's a mess.''

In Burton's movie, Wonka is a recluse with serious father issues. After years of secrecy brought about by the theft of his candy formulas, Wonka finally opens his chocolate factory to five lucky kids for a day's tour through rooms sporting chocolate rivers, marshmallow trees and edible grass, a world maintained by tiny workers called Oompa-Loompas.

Four of the young visitors are brats, their souls soured by years of parental indulgence. The fifth, Charlie, is poor in possessions but pure in spirit.

``But he's not a Disney kid,'' says writer John August, who also wrote Burton's last movie, ``Big Fish.'' ``Charlie isn't trying to be good. He is good.''

Adds Burton: ``He's just a normal kid. That's the whole point. It's a tough character because it's a simple character. All the other bad kids get their just desserts, so to speak. Charlie has a purity and simplicity that floats to the top. To me, at least in my life, what you want to do is reach a place where you can find that simple purity in a perverted world.''

On the other hand, Burton calls Wonka ``emotionally stunted,'' a genius confectioner but completely deficient in every other area of his life. In fleshing out the character, Burton and August supplemented Dahl's book, giving Wonka a back story involving a dentist father and a childhood deprived of both love and candy.

Burton and Depp - who have now worked together on four movies - also looked to their own childhoods for Wonka inspiration.

``What I started to see, when I was doing my early research, was having memories of watching 'Captain Kangaroo' and 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' when I was 5 or 6,'' Depp says. ``And I remembered thinking even then how odd it was the way that they spoke, that bizarre, musical cadence to their speech.

``I also remember thinking about game-show hosts and that perpetual grimace/grin on their faces,'' Depps continues. ``I kept thinking, 'Well, they're certainly not like that at home.' You hope not. So it's like they go on stage, put on a mask and do their thing and take it off. It's almost like a clown sort of thing. Those two things became the basis for this version of Wonka.''

Depp's Wonka speaks in a sing-song voice, sports a Prince Valiant haircut (``a Brian Jones sort of bob,'' Depp says, referring to the ill-fated Rolling Stones guitarist) and has a pale complexion that brings to mind a certain eccentric pop star, a comparison that irks both Depp and Burton.

``You could just as easily think of a reclusive germaphobe like Howard Hughes,'' Depp says, adding that Jacko never crossed his mind.

``Michael Jackson loves children; Willy Wonka can't stand them,'' Burton says. ``To me, that's a big difference in the persona. It's like night and day.''

Wonka, in fact, doesn't much like anybody, an odd quality to have in amain character of what is, ostensibly, a children's movie. (``But it shouldn't be a child's first movie,'' writer August cautions.) But then, that is par for the course for a psychedelic film that, like its source material, pulls no punches in showing bad things befalling the beastly brats who dare to bend the rules in Wonka's own private Idaho.

``I go back and look at the book and I think we're even lighter in a way,'' Burton says. ``When you read the book, it almost seems more traumatic and horrible. And yet this is a children's classic. I think adults forget sometimes what it's like to be a kid. Dahl never did.''

Says Zanuck: ``When you put Roald Dahl with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, if it isn't a little bit strange, audiences will be disappointed. These people are known for being off-center. If it hit down the middle and wasn't a little bizarre, why bother?''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

One man ... many, many Oompa-Loompas

There are 165 Oompa-Loompas in ``Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.'' One man - Deep Roy - plays them all.

``He is an Oompa-Loompa,'' director Tim Burton says, laughing. ``There was no question in my mind that he was it.''

The 4-foot-4 Roy, who worked with Burton on ``Big Fish'' and ``Planet of the Apes'' (he was both an ape and a human), was originally supposed to play just one Oompa. From there, Burton would duplicate the image and create hundreds of the diminutive workers who keep Willy Wonka's chocolate factory running.

But once they got going, Burton decided that each Oompa should be a unique character, which meant that Roy would perform their every individual movement.

``It went from one Oompa to five to 50,'' says Roy from his Santa Monica home. ``I worked my butt off on this one.''

Roy has been doing that in a 30-year Hollywood career that has alternated between stunt work (Hugh Jackman threw him through a window in ``Van Helsing'') and acting (his debut came in ``The Pink Panther Strikes Again,'' playing an assassin). The son of Indian parents, Deep is an abbreviation of his given name ``Gordeep,'' which means ``God's light.'' Roy is friendly, courteous and up for just about anything a filmmaker throws his way.

``Charlie'' has four Oompa-intensive musical numbers, including a Bollywood sendup and a ``Spinal Tap''-like rock song. Each number features Roy in as many as two dozen roles. He spent four months doing the four songs and nearly a year total on the film itself.

``I took Pilates, dance lessons and learned to move like Freddie Mercury and Chuck Berry,'' Roy says. ``With each song, Tim would come in and ask, 'How many Oompas are in your family today?' The man has a vision. He knows what he wants.''

Says Burton: ``Deep could start his own Las Vegas revue with what he's learned. I know I'd buy a ticket.''

- G.W.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Dark `CHOCOLATE'

Johnny Depp gives Wonka a different flavor

(2) Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka

(3) Deep Roy's image was duplicated 165 times

Box:

One man ... many, many Oompa-Loompas (see text)