THOUSANDS of chocolate bars have been specially created at Nestl Rowntree's York plant for use in the filming of the forthcoming blockbuster, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

Heart throb Johnny Depp is currently filming the movie at Pinewood Studios, and is likely to introduce the golden ticket winners to the delights of a Nutty Crunch Surprise bar and a Whipple Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight.

But the chocolate was actually made at Nestl's Wigginton Road factory, where a special production line was used to churn out more than 100,000 wrapped dummy bars in eight different wrapper designs.

Nestl Rowntree's managing director, Chris White, has been invited to the studios next week where he could meet the stars and the film's maverick director, Tim Burton, who personally oversaw the design and creation of the chocolate bars.

Nestl marketing director Sam Hunter said the Wigginton Road plant could still be used by the filmmakers in some capacity - perhaps for an outside factory shot.

"A lot of hard work has gone into this, but it has gone really well," he said. "It's very exciting and a lot of fun. We dealt directly with the producers and directors to create the chocolate and it proved to be a big challenge."

Mr Hunter said there was a potential opportunity to create chocolate bars that could be sold to the public to coincide with the film's release next summer.

Updated: 10:41 Wednesday, July 14, 2004