All over the web today and we couldn't resist taking a closer look: Disney just released the first photos from next years film adapatation of Alice in Wonderland...
...as envisioned by Tim Burton.
The portrait of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter looks to be a great indicator of the overall visual look we can expect - colorful, a little trippy, with a nod to victoriana and a layer of slight creepy-ness, which all seems like its going to be a real treat for the eyes and totally appropriate to the story it is based on.
But what we were really excited to see (maybe due to all the real-life gardens we're looking at this month) are the exterior sets. These are some very grand gardens!
They include all of the usual Wonderland wonders, such as giant toadstools, flowers with faces and a white rabbit in waistcoat, but we like the somewhat grounded in reality look of are the garden structures. The entrances with the stonework, scrolled metal gates and fences and topiaries are just twisted enough to fit into the Burton universe, but lend a touch of real Victorian British garden flavor to the whole enterprise, an interesting (and fitting) twist.
What do you think? Do these early shots make you think you'll be heading to the theater to see Alice in 2010?
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absolutely wheni heard about this i was so excited i just hope he doesn't make it tooo dark
i'm a huge fan of burton but i think he went the wrong direction when he went with the charlie and the chocolate factory it was just a bit tooo creepy and airbrushed for my taste
What they wanna do that to the pretty?
Tim Burton--that boy ain't right.
The anticipation is killing me. I predict best movie of the decade, and if anyone knows how i could go about having tim burtons love child just let me know.
I can not wait to see this film, I actually studied it for an entire course back in college. Very excited, and those shots are beautiful! Thanks for bringing them to us.
Is Helena Bonham Carter Burton playing Alice. She weasels her way into all of her husbands movies. BAH! Aesthetically pleasing but ever since he dumped his old muse, Lisa Marie, his movies have been going down hill. Lately it seems as though he's just been phoning it in. Not a shocker to see Johnney Depp as the mad Hatter. Yet when it's all said and done, OH MY GOD I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT! IT LOOKS FAB YOU LUSS!!!
my trinity is tim burton, johnny depp, and danny elfman.
i am so excited for this flick! tim burton has an amazing talent, and wonderful vision. hmm, also, a very twisted mind.
oh yes.
Scary looking - Definitely not a kids movie...
I'll wait till it's available "On Demand" - no movie is worth dealing w/ $5 sodas and inconsiderate people leaving their cellphones on...
(And I've grown accustomed to my "Pause" button)
Tim Burton is fantastic. And why would you NOT make this movie dark? I mean, what a great (and expected) twist. It was already a fantastically tripped out story . . . so it was just BEGGING to be re-done by Mr. Burton! And Tim Burton together with Johnny Depp = magic!!!!!
Helena Bonham Carter is playing the Queen of Hearts, I believe. You can see her here.
I'm definitely looking forward to this movie. That first image is the stuff of nightmares, though.
I heard that Alice is the amazing young actress Sophie from the HBO show "In Treatment." Fabulous talent. Helena is the Red Queen, Anne Hathaway the White Queen.
Yeeek. What is with him and making previously for-children movies into creepy trips? It reminds me too much of American McGee's Alice for some reason. I keep waiting to see Alice whip out a knife.
Most definitely! I am always a fan of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, plus Alice in Wonderland (the actual book) is inspiring!
it looks so cool! though i must admit i got a bit scared when i read on imdb that crispin glover is in the cast...
This site has uncropped versions of the photos:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-06-22-wonderland-art_N.htm
In the one with the white rabbit, I see a bloom a lot like the corpse flower off to the right!
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/news/look-corpse-flower-at-the-huntington-087291
I am so flippin' excited!
The one thing to suit all home design sensibilities: Johnny Depp. He would look good in any room.
Amen- JasmineIsDomestic- Amen!
I think Tim Burton is the PERFECT person to remake this classic. I can't wait!
I can't wait for this to come out either! I sold a few antiques to the production company for use in the movie, and I am hoping they won't end up on the cutting room floor!!! It's my brush with fame...
Theo- You read my mind!
Yeahhhh, this is definitely exciting. I've been looking on/off for new pics or video for this baby... thank god for AT, and my whole "I have to check this ALL DAY LONG" obsession.
I'm afraid of the whole airbrushed look too, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was so fun though, I ended up looking past it. I think Burton will have a lot of fun on this project. It seriously does one of my dream-casts... Depp, Glover, Rickman, with a pinch of Christopher Lee... *swooon* He really knows how to pick 'em!
That looks very cool, and yes I think it would inspire me to see the film. I esp. love the second pic, eery and beautiful at the same time. Those faces in the roses would be a cool Halloween decoration.
YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
I support anything that Johnny Depp does these days. He is such a brilliant character actor. No one in Hollywood today can pull off the diverse characters he has played in his career.
"Tim Burton--that boy ain't right." wrenx
LOL, that's the reason we love him.
Oh boy, can't wait!
Johnny Depp in Charlie and Chocolate Factory creeped me out, but in a "I want to see it again" sort of way. I can't wait to see this!
Woohooo!
While the artful concept is beautiful I am tired of Depp in these character roles. There are plenty of other fine actors out there and then I wouldn't spend the whole movie thinking "Hey its Johnny Depp"
Meh. Everything looks too fake. It looks kinda lame to me. Sorry. Look, I was a huge Burton fan once, and sometimes he absolutely nails it. But when he misses, he REALLY misses. I though the Chocolate Factory movie was an embarrassingly dull mess. It was just lifeless. So much money was on the screen, but the film was just bad. I barely got through it and I NEVER walk out on films. And don't even get me started on Planet of the Apes... That said, Big Fish was absolutely beautiful and worked on so many levels...
OMG! Alan Rickman plays the caterpillar! Perfect.
Should be interesting. Tim Burton always seems to put a different twist on things. It will be nice to see him hopefully do something more colorful but hopefully not as overdone as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Not his best. I hope he redeems himself with this story.
Not surprising to see Johnny Depp. He is LOVELY, but it would be refreshing for Burton to use another actor for once. But I'll take me some Johnny Depp ! Yes please!
Very cool - can't wait now till the movie comes out. How fitting, only this past weekend I bought for my good friend Anne's daughter the pop-up version of Alice in Wonderland. It is an amazing beautiful version of the story, a good wait till the movie comes out, for all the passionate people to classic stories like this.
Johnny Depp looks great in any room and not many have the depth to perform in the dark/grotesque manner that Tim Burton envisions their charachters. I think all of his movies have an amazing impact on you if you watch them in a movie theatre. I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the humor, the sardony combined with Johnny Depp's dark approach made the movie a unique experience. I could not get over the magic of that movie for weeks.
Thank you, TheoJ. Anyone who thinks this should be a bright, happy fairy tale for kids may want to consider reading the book for a more accurate (non-Disney) portrayal of the story. I thought it was a fun, dark and surprising read all at once.
As a short example, read The Walrus and the Carpenter, which is part of the second book about Alice, "Through the Looking Glass." Not exactly a happy ending...
http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html
Anyway, I don't think Burton is making this with kids in mind anyway -- and the same goes for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Even if it doesn't live up to my expectations, it will at least be interesting to look at!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.awn.com/heaven_and_hell/svank/IMAGES/Alice.gif&imgrefurl
For Alice fans who love it dark, check out the brilliant animated version by Jan Svankmajer, my favorite fever dream of a movie. Dead Man is on my top ten list, love Depp, and Burton too, though Wonka was too Michael Jacksonish for me.
seeing this shot, i thought it was someone's photoshop of depp as willy wonka.
There is a 1985 movie called Dreamchild ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamchild ) for anyone interested in Alice in Wonderland or Lewis G Carroll, a fictional account of the woman that inspired Carroll's character Alice. Strange concept.....There are some fantasy scenes in the movie involving the cretures from Alice in Wonderland, designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. They looked dark and menacing, certainly as dark as anything Burton could ever think of approaching. Netflix this one if you have the time.
TheoJ - exactly! Just read the original Grimm's fairy tales. Really violent and gruesome.
"I don't think Burton is making this with kids in mind anyway -- and the same goes for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
However Charlie and the Chocolate Factory WAS written for children...
http://www.roalddahl.com/
...and Alice in Wonderland originated as a spoken story for 3 little girls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Adventures_in_Wonderland
I always though Alice in Wonderland was creepy... I'm so excited for this movie to come out!
@ bepsf: The fact that Alice was originally an oral tale for little girls doesn't change its surreal creepiness. Mother Goose and the aforementioned Grimm's Fairy Tales were equally creepy and equally child-oriented.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory belongs to a different time and a different aesthetic, but even Roald Dahl has received his share of criticism for being too dark. As I recall, even the book's shinier, happier film version with Gene Wilder had its adult references, as when a disqualified golden-ticket winner turned out to be Martin Bormann (Hitler's secretary and much-sought war criminal, long believed to be living in Argentina).
Before the sanitized, modern version of 'fairytales', children's stories used to be quite dark tales, as others have pointed out, filled with violence (often quite gruesome), sex, and death. Some literary theorists have suggested that this was a means for children to face some of the scary aspects of life, but in a safe and controlled manner.
And anyone who has read anything about Lewis Carroll knows that the man had serious problems (drug abuse for one thing) and that Alice in Wonderland was a concocted by him to beguile a young girl he was apparently obsessed with. Rewatch the old Disney cartoon. Even Disney's version of the tale is memorably trippy and strange. That's why Burton seems like a perfect fit for this story. Again, I am definitely looking forward to it.
Yikes! Johnny Depp looks creepy! Looks like its going to be a trippy movie!
Definitely will be planning on seeing this one. I also heard that Where the Wild Things are directed be Spike Jonez should be coming to theaters in November. I found the preview for it and it looks friggin awesome!
slowdown has it right. Most kids I know this age like stories extra dark. While Burton's movies might be too mature for a typical 6 yr. old, his movies are meant for us wicked adults! ; )
You call that "creepy-ness" (sic) slight?
Way to go and ruin an excellent cast with the dreadful Anne Hathaway. Tim, if your reading this, you still have time to recast and shoot her scenes.
PS I loved your cameo in Singles.
"Way to go and ruin an excellent cast with the dreadful Anne Hathaway."
I second that!!
I am absolutely a fan of Tim Burton and his world(s), but frankly, I am getting tired of seeing the same stars in all his stories/movies. I think it is time Burton went out there and discovered another generation of actors/actresses to be the faces of his world(s).
I too am surprised to find myself not looking forward to this. It's just beginning to feel a bit played to me. What Marfanboy said about Johnny Depp is similar to how I feel about Tim Burton. I know what his 'vision' looks like now (in great detail too as it's basically the same in every movie) and I'm not blown away by the bizarreness anymore. It's difficult to be impressed with his wonderfully creative aesthetics (/s) when he never really changes or grows, except in terms of budget and scale.
I do like Tim Burton and his Johnny Depp movies though. They're some of my favorites, so much so that I don't feel I ever need or want to see another TB-JD movie.
Okay, we can all agree this looks like a fantastic movie, but... why is it on AT? I'm not really buying the link to Outdoors Month via the pictures of gardens.
I'm already standing in line.
Can't wait, I hope it's darker than Charlie & the Chocolate Factory which was bland and annoying to me w/ overacting galore. I want Dark like Sleepy Hollow or Batman (1&2)!
This movie looks amazing and I cannot wait for it to arrive in theaters... and it's here b/c we are all nerds and nerds like to talk about movies months in advance, soon there will be a screening of HP7 parts 1 & 2...
To anyone who thinks that Alice in Wonderland wasn't strange or creepy enough, remember Marilyn Manson's project about Lewis Carol (that seems to have never come out) with Lily Cole as Alice, and him as Carol. I get the sense that that version, Carol would have been a pedophile. I mean, Lily Cole- she looks like she is 8!
Look at the entire Alice in Wonderland Story... It is a drug trip. Mushrooms, smoking things, drinking things. I think the mushrooms explain it all.