The notorious Tim Burton’s latest addition to his body of work is none other than the classic tale of Lewis Carroll’s, “Alice In Wonderland”, “Through The Looking Glass”, and “What Alice Found There.”  He will attempt to work his dark and Gothic magic over one of the best loved stories of all time.  For those that have been living in their own holes the story of Alice was first told of a story about a young girl, who after following a rabbit down a hole, is transported to a strange world.  Coming from Burton this will not be a sloutch of a remake.  Unquestionably Burton will have an original point of view, and not unlike Charlie and The Chocolate Factory he has said his intent is to capture the essence of the novel, not Disney’s sweet cartoon interpretation.  His dark and foreboding perspective is welcome in a world that even Disney couldn’t avoid subconsciously slipping into scenes.  There is a decadent malice to the story of Alice In Wonderland and who better to make that realized.

The traditional tale has been updated giving a dash of women empowerment.   Writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast) sets the story with Alice at age seventeen, attending a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types.  In terror, she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn’t remember.

Among those who welcome her back is the Mad Hatter, a part tailor-made for Johnny Depp as he collaborates with Burton for the seventh time. About playing the Mad Hatter, Depp says,

“the book is the basis for everything [they're doing with the movie].”

He claimed that there were:

“little mysteries, little clues in the book that I found fascinating that were keys to at least my understanding of the Mad Hatter.”

On collaborating with Burton for the seventh time, he said:

“I made my little weird drawings and water colors and brought them to Tim and he brought me his weird little drawings and water colors and they were not dissimilar [laughs]. You could’ve put them right together and they were pretty darn close.”

Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, 19, best known for HBO’s In Treatment, has the coveted title role. “There is something real, honest and sincere about her,” Producer Richard Zanuck says. “She’s not a typical Hollywood starlet.” She beat out several candidates for the role, including Amanda Seyfriend and Lindsay Lohan.

For her sixth time working with now husband Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter is scheduled to play the loathsome and nefarious Red Queen, who is best known for irrationally shouting, “Off with their heads!”  It’s rumored that her ghoulish castle has a moat filled with bobbing heads.  This has people concerned it won’t be appropriate for children, but Producer Zanuck assures most kids can handle it.

“The book itself is pretty dark. This is for little people and people who read it when they were little fifty years ago.”

The casting auditions for 250 extras were held in the British city of Plymouth in August 2008. Requirements were for people with a ‘Victorian look’ and for applicants to have no visible tattoos, piercings or dyed hair.  Along with Wasikowska, Carter, and Depp, also scheduled in roles is:

Anne Hathaway as The White Queen

Alan Rickman as The Caterpillar

Michael Sheen as The Rabbit

Stephen Fry as The Cheshire Cat

Crispin Glover as The Knave Of Hearts

Christopher Lee as The Jabberwocky

Timothy Spall as The Bloodhound

Noah Taylor as The March Hare

Matt Lucas as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

Scheduled for release on March 5, 2010, Zanuck says they finished shooting after only forty days.  All that remains is the live action being merged with the CGI and then transferred to 3D.

I cannot wait to jump down this Rabbit Hole.

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