"ALICE IN WONDERLAND gets Burton-ized"–USA TODAY offers a first look

USA Today gives the front page of their “Life” section to an article on Tim Burton’s upcoming 3D version of Alice in Wonderland, including some wonderful concept art and photos of cast members in costume and makeup. Called “What a weird Wonderland Burton made: Director injects signature surrealism into familiar fairy tale characters,” the article by Susan Wloszcyna begins, “You might have gone down the rabbit hole before. But never with a guide quite as attuned to the fantastic as Tim Burton.” Or, as producer Richard Zanuck puts it, Alice in Wonderland “has been Burton-ized.”

According to Wloszcyna, Alice’s tale has been tweaked “with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off 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.”

Welcoming her back is the Mad Hatter, a character Zanuck describes as “off his rocker” (he’s not called the Mad Hatter for nothing) and Wloszcyna considers “a part tailor-made for Johnny Depp.” To see a larger version of JD as the Mad Hatter, CLICK HERE. “He is so much fun and so nutty, I can’t imagine anyone else doing it,” Zanuck says.

To see JD’s fellow cast members Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen–a character whose look is obviously modeled on England’s Queen Elizabeth I–CLICK HERE, and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, CLICK HERE. For Mia Wasikowska as the almost-grown-up Alice, CLICK HERE. To read the entire USA Today story and see some marvelous photos of Burton’s sets, CLICK HERE.

The Zone thanks Theresa for posting the article on Alice in Wonderland, and Theresa and FANtasticJD for sharing photos. You can read much more about Alice in Wonderland on the Zone’s News & Views forum. Tim Burton’s Alice comes to theaters on March 5, 2010.–Part-Time Poet