<P> The idea for adapting the book into a film came about when director Mel Stuart's ten - year - old daughter read the book and asked her father to make a film out of it, with "Uncle Dave" (producer David L. Wolper) producing it . Stuart showed the book to Wolper, who happened to be in the midst of talks with the Quaker Oats Company regarding a vehicle to introduce a new candy bar from its Chicago - based Breaker Confections subsidiary (since renamed the Willy Wonka Candy Company and sold to Nestlé). Wolper persuaded the company, which had no previous experience in the film industry, to buy the rights to the book and finance the picture for the purpose of promoting a new Quaker Oats Wonka Bar . </P> <P> It was agreed that the film would be a children's musical, and that Dahl himself would write the screenplay . However, the title was changed to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory . </P> <P> 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 of Venice . Seltzer also worked Slugworth (only mentioned as a rival candy maker in the book) into the plot as an actual character (only to be revealed to be Wilkinson, one of Wonka's agents, at the end of the film). </P> <P> All six members of Monty Python: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, expressed interest in playing Wonka, but at the time they were deemed not big enough names for an international audience . Three of the members, Cleese, Idle and Palin, were later seriously considered for the same role in Tim Burton's version . </P>

Where is charlie and the chocolate factory supposed to take place