Willy or Won't He?

Johnny Depp, who most recently showed off his ability to be both charming and slightly creepy in the current ''Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,'' may soon get to use that skill playing Willy Wonka. According to Variety, he's now the frontrunner to play the mysterious confectioner in Warner Bros. upcoming version of ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.''

It's easy to see why; not only is he coming off one of the biggest hits of his career with ''Pirates,'' but he's also a favorite leading man of the director, Tim Burton, for whom he's starred in such movies as ''Edward Scissorhands,'' ''Ed Wood,'' and ''Sleepy Hollow.'' Plus, Warner Bros. hopes to turn the movie into a Broadway musical, and while it's not clear that the film will also be a musical (like the 1971 ''Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory''), Depp has proven, with his band P, that he's not without musical talent.

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