Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film) channeling Keith Richards, which may have primed us to look for possible inspirations for this performance." Mick LaSalle from the "San Francisco Chronicle" found "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" Burton's "best work in years. If all the laughs come from Depp, who gives Willy the mannerisms of a classic Hollywood diva, the film's heart comes from Highmore, a gifted young performer whose performance is sincere, deep and unforced in a way that's rare in a child actor." Peter Travers wrote in "Rolling Stone" magazine that "Depp's deliciously demented take on Willy Wonka demands to be seen. Depp goes deeper to
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to buy the rights to the book and finance the picture for the purpose of promoting a new Quaker Oats "Wonka Bar". David L. Wolper and Roald Dahl agreed that the film would be a children's musical, and that Dahl himself would write the screenplay. However, Wolper changed the title to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". Screenwriter David Seltzer conceived a gimmick exclusively for the film that had Wonka quoting numerous literary sources, such as Arthur O'Shaughnessy's "Ode", Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest", Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and William Shakespeare's "The Merchant