The Tao of Confectionary Dramatization

"It's time. It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day."

- Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Following the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina

I will get to why I find the above quote to be of profound importance to me in a little bit, but in order to get to that I need to side track a little bit.

In a few weeks the 81st Annual Academy Awards will be taking place, and without a doubt the highlight of the ceremony will be Heath Ledger winning the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance as the Joker in Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" (assuming of course that he does in fact win this, which I certainly feel is quite likely). Ledger's performance was something to behold, it stood on its own as a portrayal of a hyper-intelligent anarchist with resolute interpretations of the perceived morality of man. As well, it measured favourably as interpretation of one of modern literature's most iconic distillations of villiany, out shining Jack Nicholson and Ceasar Romero's takes on the character, and in doing so upstaging two character actors widely regarded as being in a class of their own.

Though Ledger has passed on he will be remembered through his work. Ledger was likely not an actor one would have ever considered for this role, but after this no one will soon for get him in this role.

The reason I mention this is not because I am feeling particularly sentimental, but rather because I fear that another one of modern literature's most iconic characters will not receive its own definitive performance. Nolan took a chance on Ledger even though he wasn't the obvious choice for the role, imagine how deprived cinema would truly have been had he not. Likewise one of these great character-actor, that could shake up the very foundation of cinema lies among us, but unfortunately Hollywood has chosen time and time again to deny movie goers the opportunity to experience the very type of magic films were created to convey.

The character I speak of? None other than Roald Dahl's whimisical dreamer, Willy Wonka. The actor? The answer and the reason why are located in the video below.



Anyone who is a fan of this man's work know that it is a downright shame that he has been denied this role. Both Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp did respectable jobs with what was a very challenging role, no doubt, but how can you deny the fact that this would be the perfect. If Tim Burton could only have had the foresight to have cast this living legend as Mr. Willy Wonka we would have had a movie so awesome that Hollywood's collective head would have exploded.

Getting back to the beginning quote we really need to think though, was Cosby overlooked for this role because of bigotry, and have we as a society gone far enough to overcome those prejudices. I say yes. If America can have a black president, and New Orleans can be rebuilt using chocolate as the primary building material, then I believe the world is finally ready to accept a Cosby as its Wonka.

He would have been so money in this role, because there are two things he can do better than anyone else in showbizness, perform on screen with kids in a remarkably non creepy way, and sell products of questionable health benefit for big paychecks. And when this guy shills for corporate America, he goes big or goes home, see below:



Did you just see that!?!?! Man does this guy commit to a performance no matter how much it may contribute to the childhood obesity crisis and the epidemic of type II diabetes in small children.

Alas, I must come to terms with the fact that this man, this magnificent master of corporate shillery, will likely never get the chance to play the role he was born to play. Partly because he is too old, and is no longer as limber and loose as a freshly chilled bowl of raspberry Jell-O as the part would undoubtedly require him to be. But more importantly I'm pretty sure hes too busy touring across America telling teenagers to pull up their pants and stop listening to rap music, all while wearing Sunglasses for some reason.

On that note I bid you farewell, for some reason I really have to urge to buy 35mm film for my old Kodak camera that I don't use anymore. Not sure why, something about colour safe dimples or something.