"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 3 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we've been counting down to the film's release with a month of daily coverage.

 

Michael Sheen has proved himself especially adept at portraying historically prominent figures -- Emperor Nero, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and David Frost, for instance -- but has plenty of experience in films of the fantastic after his fanged role as Aro in "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and three tours of duty as a werewolf for the "Underworld" franchise.

For the new film "Alice in Wonderland," though, he had to do a bit of both. Giving voice to the White Rabbit meant bringing one of the more iconic characters of British literature to the screen but it was also, well, a job as a cotton-tailed rabbit.

“I lived with a family of rabbits,” Sheen deadpanned when asked about his preparation for the role. “It was a very grueling process. All that nibbling.”

But really, he said, there was very minimal preparation for the role.

“In a way, the good thing about something like this is that you don’t have to do a huge amount of research for it,” Sheen said.  “Not for me, anyway. The research is the relationship you’ve had with the story all your life. And it’s probably the most famous story in the world … next to the Bible. I think I knew the characters well before I knew they were in a book.”

The 41-year-old actor couldn’t exactly recall the first time he read Lewis Carroll’s surreal adventure, but whenever it was, the tale made a lasting impression.

 

“‘It’s just one of those things where it’s sort of ingrained in your consciousness,” Sheen said. “It’s so much a part of the fabric of our culture. And then there are the films. I think the first full-length version of the story I saw was the [1951] Disney film. And as lovely as that was, there was something sort of disturbing about it. I think that was sort of the appeal of it. You can’t categorize it. You can never quite sort of feel the edge of it … that’s sort of what drew me back to it again and again.”

He’s well aware of the story’s iconic legacy in the narrative — and pop culture — world, so when it came time to finally voice the White Rabbit, you’d think his first thoughts would be “Oh dear! Oh dear!”  Not exactly.

“After so many versions and portrayals, I just tried to check and listen to what the character sounded like in my head,” Sheen said. “I tried not to give him too many embellishments. I just tried to be simple with him.”

Sheen spent hours behind the mike, careful to deliver his lines with spunk and precision.  That meant not only being expressive with his voice, but with his body, too … just as his fellow cast mates did on set.

“Talking to the actors, it was like there was no set for them either,” Sheen said. “I don’t think anyone really had a sense of what it was going to be like; how it would all come together. It was just a real journey of imagination for everyone.”

But he does admit it would have been fun to experience that journey on set with director Tim Burton, rather than in a sound booth.

“I would have given anything to put on a rabbit suit and go out there with the rest of them,” he said. “But that’s just not what was needed. Plus, I would have looked rather silly … still, anything is possible with Tim.”

Which brings up the question, what was it really like working with Burton?

“I sort of expected him to have an axe flying around his head or something … maybe some lightning and strange creatures floating around,” Sheen said.  “But he was disappointingly and reassuringly normal.”

Burton, meanwhile, said the quality he wanted most in his clock-watching bunny was a twitchiness. "In any incarnation of the [White Rabbit] through the years, there's that sort of nervousness of a rabbit," the filmmaker said. "All of these animal characters have humanistic traits, of course, since they're talking, but we wanted the animal traits to stay in there. Michael is a great actor and he also brought that accent, which I really wanted since 'Alice' is British in its roots."

   

With the magical adventure on screen an expansion of the classic tale, not a carbon copy of the original, Sheen said fans will be able to take more lessons away from it — even see it’s similarities to other classic tales.

“When I did read the script, I thought there was a fascinating take on it,” Sheen said.  “It brought it slightly closer to another classic: Peter Pan. The events of Peter Pan take place on the night that Wendy is supposed to leave the nursery. The point in which she’s about to become a woman or that in-between place where she’s not a child anymore. And she sort of finds herself in this fantastical world in Neverland.  And Alice, in this movie, is sort of at the point. She’s about to move into maturity and then the White Rabbit appears and takes her back as if the world of her childhood is in some way in peril. It’s really gonna make fans of the story think.”

As the countdown to the film’s opening comes to a close, Sheen says he’s excited for those fans to finally see the film in its entirety.

“It’s just really lovely to be a part of something like this. Normally, about seven people come out to see the things that I do. This is epic.”

--Yvonne Villarreal

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PHOTOS: Top and bottom, the White Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland" (Disney). Second, Michael Sheen in "New Moon" (Summit Entertainment); Third, Sheen in Santa Monica on Oct. 19, 2009. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 5 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we've been counting down to the film's release with a month of daily coverage.

Ask Ken Ralston, the visual effects supervisor for "Alice in Wonderland," what was the single biggest challenge posed by the fantasy film and, like the Cheshire Cat, the corners of his mouth pull back in a slow grin.

"What part of it wasn't a challenge? All the characters in the film, all the weird combination of effects, and the always-lovely fact of too little time to finish everything -- all of it was a giant challenge. To think of one thing that was bigger or more difficult than the rest, I can't do it. It was one giant challenge."

A king-sized challenge is appropriate for Ralston, who is visual-effects royalty at this stage in his career, with five Academy Awards for his work on "Forrest Gump," "Cocoon," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Return of the Jedi" and "Death Becomes Her." He is the senior visual effects supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks and before taking that post in the 1990s he had logged almost two decades at Industrial Light & Magic, where his work on three "Star Trek" films was especially acclaimed.

After working with elite filmmakers for years, it's somewhat surprising that this was Ralston's first project with "Alice" director Tim Burton. The connection was made by Richard D. Zanuck, the venerable Hollywood producer who worked with Ralston on the 1985 film "Cocoon" and has produced five films with Burton since 2000.

This film provided a singular challenge, Ralston said, because it is a hybrid of three sorts of filmmaking -- live-action, animation and performance capture -- and with such dizzying amounts of interaction and interference that it required NASA-like calibration.

"The great challenge of it was the fact that every shot in the movie and every scene is filled with a variety of techniques and ideas, so you can't just plug something in and run with it," Ralston said. "This is no one-trick pony, it's a 1,000-trick pony. It's all scattered around in weird ways. The huge challenge to make it all feel like the same world, to have smoothness to it so that Alice -- who is normal, except for size-changing throughout the movie -- is surrounded by Red Queen, the Mad Hatter and Knave -- who are versions of humanoids -- and then on top of that all the animal characters who are animated."

Ralston said that was only the first part of the puzzle -- then came the sculpting required to make those disparate pieces mesh without bumps and breakdowns.

"On top of all that, all three groups are for the most part in computer-graphic environments that are surrounding them. What's entailed in making that feel like a unified moment, where they're all on the screen and interacting with each other in a believable way, well, that was more than a little tricky. That's really all it took to make 'Wonderland.'"

-- Geoff Boucher

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IMAGES: Disney

 

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 7 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage.

More than 100 variations of "Alice in Wonderland" have been published since Lewis Carrollpenned his tale in 1865 inspiring numerous comic book adaptations as well as several Manga versions in recent years. But its Camille Rose Garcia’s recently released interpretation that is resonating with readers and climbingthe L.A. Times bestsellers list.

Perhaps its her painting style, often depicting creepy cartoon children living in wasteland fairy tales, an approach that may be resonating with young fans curious about the Tim Burton-directed film that seems to be on every billboard and bus across the country. Liesl Bradner chatted with the Orange County native about her love for Children’s books and all things Disney and future hopes to modernize their inaugural princess, Snow White.

LB: Describe your vision of Alice.

CRG: The original John Tenniel illustrations were always some of my favorites and those were definitely lodged in my head. 

I wanted to stay true to his vision but I’m so influenced by Disney. I loved the backgrounds in their early movies, (“Snow White,” “Pinocchio”) so I watched  a lot of those films to try to get more of a color feel.  They were all done in the 30s with watercolor which has that very classic touch. It did occur to me to give Alice black hair, make it more edgy and unique but I wanted to stay true to the classic feel of the book. Using watercolors referred back to the Tenniel work but I added a little bit of a modern gothic touch as well. That was my vision for the work. 

LB: As a longtime fan of  "Alice," how has its influenced your work?

CRG:I always liked the themes of Alice and playing with the idea of landscape being somewhat surreal, cartoonish, not totally based in reality. The story lends itself to the kind of work I do anyway. The sort of shifting of realities.

LB: Was the book your idea?

CRG: Actually Harper Collins came to me. One of the editors was aware of my work and knew the movie was coming out.  A few years ago I was in talks with Disney to do a reinterpretation of Alice for merchandising so I had already done some extensive thinking about this subject.

LB:  Why do you think your interpretation is connecting with readers?

CRG:  The response has been incredible and very unexpected. Maybe its the  familiarity as the story remained exactly the same –its the entire unabridged version. That was a challenge. I didn’t want to divert too much attention away from Tenniel’s illustrations and do an homage to his work with my twist, of course. I can also see the connection with Tim Burton’s vision of the film. We both work in that same dark, goth genre. That quality is resonating with a lot of young people today. The times we live in are very tumultuous, a lot of unknown and frightening things. Its something kids are relating to.
LB: Of the more than 50 illustrations, do you have a favorite?

CRG:  The Lobster-Quadrille. It was new and totally original. Tenniel has never illustrated that scene-  a dance where Alice and friends fling lobsters into the sea.  It was a totally virgin experience for me where I had all the other scenes registered in my head. And I managed to sneak a narwhal  in the background.

LB: Any plans to update other fairy tale characters?

CRG: I would love to do Snow White. That's my dream project. I love how he (Disney) interpreted those old Germanic fairy tales and put his twist on them. I thinks its time someone reinterpreted his reinterpretations.

L.A. EVENT: Garcia will be signing copies of her book at "Down the Rabbit Hole," a book release party and exhibition of original artwork from "Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland," March 6 at Merry Karnowsky Gallery(170 S. La Brea Ave). 

 

-Liesl Bradner

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Images: Top - Cover illustration. Top right- "Advice From a Caterpillar". Bottom left- "The Lobster Quadrille". Credit: Camille Rose Garcia

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 8 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, Hero contributer Gerrick Kennedy talks to character designer Michael Kutsche.

GK: “Alice in Wonderland” was your first experience working on a film. How did you fall into the world of Wonderland and Tim Burton?

MK: It was a huge leap for me because I’m from Germany. I’ve been a pretty successful illustrator but not in the field of movies, and I was doing illustrations for games -- like the packaging. Two years ago I put all the work that I did online [because] I never really took good care about making myself public. When you’re working full-time you’re not really thinking about other jobs. One day I was working in my studio in Berlin and I got this e-mail from Sony Imageworks that was like we have this movie project and we found your portfolio would you like to work on a movie? This was a big deal for me.

GK: But you didn’t know you were “auditioning” to work on “Alice in Wonderland’?

MK: They said there were a couple of illustrators -- kinda like a competition -- so would you please draw a caterpillar. Like think of “Pan's Labyrinth,” real actors with animated features. I did that in one day … I tried to do the best that I could. I got the job and finally met the vice president of Sony Imageworks [Debbie Denise]. She said what movie I’d be working on. She said it was Tim Burton and “Alice in Wonderland.” I was totally like fainting.

GK: What type of creative freedom did you have in your work? Burton has a very unique style. How did you adapt to that?

MK: I worked with visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston – this is the guy who did “Star Wars”! He said we were very early on in the production, we don’t have much direction, take some characters, get some ideas for it and go crazy. That’s what I did. In the beginning, I was a little over the top with it. A little too frightening.

GK: In your early sketches, the Cheshire Cat is more human-like and is slight and slinky, with hot pink stripes and an unsettling, toothy grin, and your Mad Hatter wore industrial goggles and had less whimsy...

MK: Because it’s a Disney production [some of that] didn’t really have that mass appeal. It would have shocked the kids. Tim Burton is a big fan of that book, and the original illustrator. Tim had his own drawings in his London office, so he wanted to have a little bit of a classic feel, so that the animals were more like animals with a twist instead of having a far-off fantasy. Sometimes he gave like a very quick sketch that was really helpful. I would take that and make it really detailed.

GK: With this being a reimagining, as opposed to a remake, how much of the original did you have in your mind as you did your designs? 

MK: I was looking at the original drawings from John Tenniel and Arthur Rackham and I also looked at the clothing from that time to have the feel for this period so that it's rooted in some sort of reality. We gave those characters clothing from that time.

GK: Everyone, of course, is focused on the 3-D element of the film. Did knowing that it would be seen in 3-D have any influence on your designs?

MK: Not for this one. I would doubt, maybe in terms of environment. In terms of design itself, even if you look at it in 3-D the brain kinda recognizes it. It's more about the shape and the perspective.

GK: When did you first get into illustrating?

MK: I was always drawing, from kindergarten age. I didn’t really go to art school, I just self trained. At that time I always felt self-conscious that I don’t know too much, now I kinda find that’s what makes it a little more special. It’s not the taste of the professors or one of my [peers].

GK: You’re from Germany and a lot of the work on “Alice” was done in London. How did that work for you?

MK: I worked from home on “Alice” for half a year. I asked if it was a good idea to come to London. They put me on a plane, and took me to Tim’s office. They took me to the set so I could get a feel for the movie, and the production so that the characters aren’t disconnected. After awhile in Plymouth [where large portions of the film were shot] and in London, when the production moved to Culver City they moved me into a little trailer. They asked if I wanted to sit in the Sony building but I wanted to be as close to the set as possible. Of course I wanted to get a peek at what they were doing, so I had this little trailer in the backyard.

GK: People never see the step-by-step process of creative work, the process that went into it. 

MK: Of course I read the script in the beginning, then they would send me an e-mail about a character that they needed urgently. I would start doing some sketches, scanning them and putting them in the computer and then making the color refinement. But I would also add some fur textures, little things so in the end it didn’t look like a painting on the computer. It had a more realistic feeling. When they decided on Alan Rickman to be the caterpillar I looked at photos of his face. It wasn’t Photoshopping photos of his face that wouldn’t work. So it had to be a design of its own, it kinda has the character of his eyes and the cheeks. Even if they didn’t cast characters, I always try to imagine who could it be, to try and get as much personality as possible. I think it’s crucial.

GK: You worked on a number of characters, also including the Red Queen and Knave of Hearts. Is there one that sticks out as your favorite?

MK: I think the caterpillar. But I also like the twins in a way, which that’s a design that Bobby Chiu did. As crazy as they are they kinda work together really well. I also think that because usually you have a big group of artists working on one character, because we only had like three people designing them (Kutsche, Chiu and Kei Acedera), they were really distinct. They didn’t get watered down. Like too many cooks [in the kitchen]. I think he was careful not to work with too many people.  

Up next for the 32-year-old who said he didn’t “expect to stay in America this long” is character work on “Thor” and “John Carter of Mars,” slated for release in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

-- Gerrick Kennedy

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Illustrations courtesy of Michael Kutsche 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 10 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today Burton describes his version of the Mad Hatter.

The movie is called "Alice in Wonderland" but, really, the star of this film is Johnny Depp, who is making his seventh appearance in a Tim Burton-directed film.

 Depp has made a specialty of hiding his leading-man cheekbones behind oddball disguises and the latest is google-eyed hatmaker whose gone around the bend. He is also an exceptional dancer and a not-half-bad swordsman.

The shock of tangerine curls jutting from beneath his hat and his orange-rimmed eyeballs hint at the story lineage of his madness; orange-tinted mercury was used in the manufacture of felt in Victorian England and sometimes it seeped through the skin -- with nasty side-effects.

"Hatters kind of went mad because they used certain chemicals in the hat process and little things like that really ground it for the performers and for the audience," Burton said. "Even though we don't go into all that about the poison, it creates a full picture that helps ground these characters. So they're not just random weirdos. Yes, they are weird, but there's more."

Depp got the idea for orange from the research he did but Burton seized on the idea for a more personal reason. "There is something really scary about orange hair. Every performer in my childhood who had orange hair, it seemed to signify that they were not to be trusted and could be dangerous. Bozo, Carrot Top, Ralph Malph -- if you go there, it's frightening stuff."

-- Geoff Boucher

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"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 11 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today Burton describes his version of the White Queen.

 

In "Alice in Wonderland," actress Anne Hathaway glides across the screen as the White Queen with a pearly grin that becomes a bit unsettling -- it's somewhere between Glinda the Good Witch and "The Stepford Wives."

A one point she cheerily cooks up a magic potion that includes plenty of nasty ingredients (including some putrid-looking amputated fingers), and it turns out that was a hint to the real-life inspiration for the character, according to director Tim Burton.

"There's this very beautiful cooking show host in England named Nigella Lawson and I quietly had her as my image for this character," Burton said, referring to the comely author and television personality sometimes referred to as the "queen of food porn."

Burton, who previously said that the Red Queen has a bit of Leona Helmsley in her, said Lawson's domestic goddess routine has an eerie edge to it at times. "She's really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really ... nuts.' I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don't know."

The plot of "Alice" is the quest of Wonderland's strange denizens to return their kingdom's throne to the White Queen -- a quest that requires a champion who may or may not be the returning-visitor Alice. The White Queen is in exile while her shrill sister, the Red Queen, rules the land.

The tense relationship between the royal sisters was an intriguing one to Burton.

"With a lot of people I've known, when it comes to sisters, there's this perception that there's the nice one and the bad one," Burton said. "But then, that nice one, there's also undercurrents there and things going back and forth between the two. She can stay up sharpening knives all night, but she's still the nice one."

Burton said the script by Linda Woolverton and the subversive nature of Lewis Carroll's classic cast of characters both bend the perception of good and evil more than most children's tales.   

"The interesting thing I think was to have them connected, and neither is quite what you expect," Burton said. "What Linda did with that was great. It helps with the thing that really sets Alice apart from so many other types of kids literature, which is the fact that everybody is a little bit off. Even if somebody is good, there's something wrong with them. Everyone is a bit twisted somehow. The White Queen is no exception."

-- Geoff Boucher

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PHOTOS: The White Queen cooks up some trouble in "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Studios). Nigella Lawson at work in the kitchen ("Nigella Bites").

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 13 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage.

The Mad Hatter came out to play. . . in Hollywood. The Hollywood & Highland complex transformed into Wonderland for a few hours Friday night as hundreds of fans gathered in the plaza's courtyard (and alongside the railings of its upper levels) for an "Alice in Wonderland" bazaar that included appearances by the fantastical film's star-studded cast. "Wonder" friends in the crowd cheered as Tim Burton summoned Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Lucas and Michael Sheen on stage to cap off the two-hour event. But the screams became deafening when another character joined the tea party. Sporting his trademark tinted glasses and a scarf, Johnny Depp shuffled onto the stage to greet his loyal subjects. And in a matter of seconds, the cast was gone. Prior to what seemed like an illusion, the event — which streamed live on MySpace and was hosted by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Records — also marked the official release of the film's soundtrack "Almost Alice" and featured performances from four featured artists who did a short (almost inaudible) set to highlight included songs. The line-up included  Kerli's "Tea Party," Never Shout Never's "Sea What We Seas," Metro Station's "Where's My Angel" and 3OH!3's "Follow Me Down."

As the bands did their best to pump up the crowd, it was the star cast's appearance that had most people smudging their makeup with joy. And there was lots of makeup. Fans didn't merely attend the event. They lived it. A few dressed as the fluffy White Rabbit. Others donned their best Alice costumes, which included the slutty Halloween leftovers as well as the more wholesome translations. Quite a few tried to rule the plaza as the Queen of Hearts and some even ordered their posse around. And then there were the hatters. Some got gussied up in the vein of Depp's portrayal, while others, like Jaimie Corpus, simply sported the top hat. "This was amazing," said Corpus, 20, who, along with three friends, scored wristbands to catch a VIP screening of 3-D footage from the film at the adjacent El Capitan Theatre. "I've been out here since noon. To see all these bands . . . and to get these wrist bands. And Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, I mean, they were the reason I took the train from Rosemead. I can't wait to see the film. I've been waiting two long years. It's almost time!" — Yvonne Villarreal

Photos: (top) Johnny Depp, Matt Lucas, Crispin Glover and Michael Sheen; (middle) Kerli; (bottom) Fans Shane Theis and John Ward came dressed as Alice and the Mad Hatter. Credit: Yvonne Villarreal

 "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 14 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen and greeted as a returning visitor. We're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage.

The rabbit hole is closer than you think.

The Hollywood & Highland complex will be transformed into a Wonderland within the hour. Tim Burton and members of the "Alice in Wonderland" cast will host an event in the central courtyard at 5 p.m.

The event, sure to attract throngs of fans, will include musical performances, prizes, meet-and-greets with the actors and sneak peeks of the film. Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway and Crispin Glover are among the actors confirmed to be present.

In case you can't make it to Hollywood for the trip, we've embedded a live video feed below so you can follow the action.

 "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 15 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen and greeted as a returning visitor. We're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, a look at the film's IMAX release as Yvonne Villarreal chats with Greg Foster, chairman and president of IMAX Filmed Entertainment, about the royal-sized treatment of Burton's fantasy film.

YV: This modern 3D trend, to some people, seems like just a gimmick that is oversaturating the industry. In the case of "Alice in Wonderland," how does the technology enhance the experience?  

GF: It takes you inside the movie. We’ve been fortunate enough to have Tim Burton in our office quite a bit over the last few weeks and it’s so exciting to be around another filmmaker. . . one of IMAX’s secret weapons. Filmmakers like IMAX, they love IMAX. It’s the way I think a lot of them imagine their movie when they close their eyes and think about the movie they’re making.  I think a lot of them see it in their minds as if it were an IMAX presentation. When you have someone with the creative firepower of Tim Burton or James Cameron, etc, it’s a very cool thing to be a part of. In terms of 3D,  just like IMAX isn’t for every movie, neither is 3D. "The Polar Express" was the catalyst for a lot of this 3D momentum. That’s the only way you could have seen it in 3D, was in IMAX.  It’s pretty cool that a lot of this got started because of something that flowed through IMAX theaters, but we’ve learned the hard way that not everything’s right for 3D. If you put a movie like — I’m not knocking the movie — but if you put “My Dinner with Andre” in 3D, I don’t know how that’s a special, unique experience. There’s certain movies that lend themselves to 3D, and there’s certain movies that don’t. And we have a very specific list of criteria and we stick to that criteria.

Can you share some of those criteria?

Absolutely. First and foremost, it’s a studio that supports IMAX and supports the marketing of the film and the distribution of a film as an event and is proud of letting everyone know that this is not just another movie they’re filling the pipeline on. It’s a unique special film. Two, a filmmaker who has a vision; who has scope; who recognizes that this is not just another movie. And that’s why we have spent an enormous amount of time coveting relationships with filmmakers, whether it’s a 2D release or a 3D release. Filmmakers that are sort of the who’s who in filmmaking. Could be Chris Nolan; could be James Cameron. Could be Michael Bay or Stephen Spielberg. Could be J.J. Abrams. Could be Tim Burton.  Could be Bob Zemeckis… and when you look at our films, you’ll see going forward, most of the movies we’re involved with are by filmmakers who’ve already been a part of the IMAX process. We’ve done “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, now we have “Alice and Wonderland.” And Johnny Depp had such a cool time that he narrated our movie “Deep Sea 3D,” which is an underwater, 40-minute documentary movie.  We did “Batman Begins,” we did “The Dark Knight.” We’ve done Harry Potter 3, 4, 5, 6 and we’re doing the next "Harry Potter" films, the final two. That to me says filmmakers understand what IMAX brings to their presentation. Lastly — which is probably the most important of all — does the movie take you somewhere you dream about going to but probably will never get to. That can be Hogwarts, the Hubble telescope, Wonderland, Pandora … Someone asked me over the weekend, ‘What really does IMAX do?’ And I said we deliver a premium presentation and we transport people from the world of Pandora to the world of Wonderland and beyond.

I haven't seen it yet, but “Alice” looks as if it will not have as much intense action like “Avatar” or “Transformers.” Does that hurt it in IMAX?

The movie in IMAX will take you into Wonderland. Through the characters, through the sound, through the clarity of the image, through the impressiveness of the IMAX presentation.  You are there. If you’re looking for a first-person passport to the world of Wonderland, this is a great way to see it. I think that’s part of why Tim has spent so much time fine-tuning the IMAX presentation on this film. He’s been an incredible partner of ours, as has Disney. We’re really, really, really lucky. If you look at our lineup over the course of the last few months, and then going forward, we’ve gone from “A Christmas Carol” with Bob Zemeckis to Pandora with “Avatar” and James Cameron to “Alice in Wonderland” … we have “How to Train Your Dragon” through a  Jeffrey Katzenberg/Dreamworks animation title at the end of March. We have a Hubble film which is a documentary movie specifically for our museums, science centers and aquariums in March also — which Leonardo DiCaprio narrated. We have "Iron Man 2." We have “Shrek 4." We have “Toy Story 3.” We have “Twilight.” And we have “Inception.” That’s between now and July. That was a good decade for us a while ago. In terms of volume of movies, in 2010, we’re going to be somewhere around 14 and 16 titles. There may be a little bit of room for one or two more at a certain point. Ultimately, we’ve made a very specific decision to be the format of choice for big event, tent-pole blockbuster movies. We want to be really selective and make sure moviegoers recognize that when a movie is in IMAX, it’s not an alternative content. It’s a special, unique big event, tent-pole blockbuster made by a terrific director with a very specific vision. It’s kind of like, it’s not broken so we’re not going to try to fix it.

 

But as more movie studios want to roll out IMAX premieres of their films have you thought of a time when there may be a need to have more screens to show three or four simultaneous films?

I do. And we’re working on it. . . . the marketplace is throwing so many 3D movies to moviegoers and people are picking IMAX as the place to see them.  If you went to the bridge the weekend Alice and Wonderland opens, my guess is you’d see IMAX will sell out and our spill out will go over to non-IMAX 3D and then non-IMAX 3D will sell out and then it will spill over to 2D. That’s just a supply and demand issue. There’s so much demand for 3D product and there’s not enough supply of 3D screens, particularly 3D screens that are the premium way of experiencing a movie, which is an IMAX. I think eventually there will be more movies — there kind of already is — than we know what to do with. The solution to that is having more screens. I think it’s very obvious that that’s where the world is headed.

There were reports that Fox was trying to keep "Avatar" in as many IMAX and 3-D locations as possible even as “Alice” is set to replace it on March 5. What’s the status on that?   

We’re looking forward to taking moviegoers from Pandora to Wonderland. I’m pretty confident Wonderland will be in most of our theaters, if not all of our theaters. . . .We have a whole new group of people who’ve never experienced IMAX before, especially IMAX 3D, and they have such a good time at “Avatar.” We played the trailer for “Alice in Wonderland” during  “Avatar,” as well as “How to Train a Dragon” and “Toy Story 3” . . . I have a feeling that they’re going to come back and have a great experience with “Alice.” I know they will after they see the movie.

— Yvonne Villarreal

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PHOTOS: Images from "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Co.) Portrait of Greg Foster of IMAX (Bob Chamberlin/Los Angeles Times).

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 16 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, a look at the brewing controversy that threaten the film's box office in Europe.

Walt Disney Pictures' decision to accelerate the release of its upcoming 3-D film "Alice in Wonderland" on DVD has sparked a revolt among movie theater owners in Europe.

Major chains in the U.K. and the Netherlands have threatened to boycott the movie when it hits theaters March 5, a move that could cut into box-office revenue.

The film adaptation based on classic characters of Lewis Carroll has become the latest battleground between studios and exhibitors over how soon movies should be released on DVD after they've opened in theaters.

Disney said it intended to release the "Alice" DVD about three months after the movie appears in theaters, compared with the typical four- to six-month window. Like other studios, Disney is experimenting with shorter windows in response to declining DVD sales. Theater owners, especially in Europe, fear that will discourage consumers from going to theaters amid a period of record revenue. Exhibitors are also upset because they have recently spent millions of dollars upgrading thousands of screens to show 3-D movies.

The flare-up illustrates how an arcane topic once only of interest to Hollywood executives can affect moviegoers around the world.

No U.S. theater owners have threatened to boycott "Alice" so far, although some have said they will pull it from their screens once it hits the home video market. In Europe, however, theater owners have taken a harder line.

"I'm getting e-mails from my colleagues all across Europe and everyone says ... this is one step too far," said Ad Weststrate, president of the International Union of Cinemas in Europe. "The guys are really fanatic now."

Weststrate also is past president of the Dutch cinema operators association, which said on its website Tuesday that a "large number of cinema operators" won't show the film because of "stranded" talks with Disney.

Theater owners in Italy and other European countries are mulling over similar action, said Weststrate. Some European exhibition executives complained that, unlike their counterparts in the U.S., they were not consulted by Disney executives until recently.

"It was represented like 'take it or leave,' " said one high-level European exhibition executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of discussions. "It was done brutally."

Disney Distribution President Bob Chapek has been in London since last week meeting with exhibitors in an attempt to resolve the dispute.

Vue Entertainment Ltd. and Odeon Cinemas, two of the U.K.'s three major cinema chains, currently don't plan to show the film in their theaters, two people familiar with the matter said, although talks remain ongoing.

Disney has reached a deal with a third major chain, Cineworld Group, and a number of independent exhibitors, one person familiar with the situation said.

A spokesman for Disney declined to comment.

Britain is the second-largest international market for American movies after Japan, but its potential for "Alice" is even larger, given that the movie, which cost about $150 million to produce, is based on a classic English story and features Johnny Depp and a mostly British cast that includes Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman. In addition, director Tim Burton, Bonham Carter's partner, lives in England.

"Anything that would prevent maximizing 'Alice' for the U.K. would be horrible," said Joe Roth, a producer of the film. "This would be one of the biggest pictures of the year in the U.K. But I honestly think this will be worked out."

The dispute over "Alice" isn't the first time that Disney has clashed with exhibitors in Britain over the issue.

Last fall, the studio made plans to offer Pixar's animated film "Up" on home video about two months after it hit theaters there in October.

Theater owners were upset that the move might cut into their ticket sales, two people familiar with the talks said. In response, major theater chains in Britain threatened to retaliate by refusing to book Disney's principal holiday film, the 3-D version of "A Christmas Carol."

In response to the furor, Disney backed down from its accelerated plans for "Up," the sources said.

Despite the dispute, Odeon will still host the "Royal World Premiere" of "Alice" at its flagship theater in London's Leicester Square next Thursday.

-- Richard Verrier, Ben Fritz and Claudia Eller

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Photos: At top, two images from "Alice in Wonderland." Credit: Walt Disney Co. Third, Johnny Depp at London's Leicester Square on June 29 at the British premiere of "Public Enemies." Credit: Max Nash / Getty Images. Bottom, a promotional poster for "Alice."

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 17 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, Burton talks about the Bloodhound character.

The film is called "Alice in Wonderland" but the story it tells is quite different than the many other films that have used that title in the past. There is, for instance, a character that never appeared in the pages of Lews Carroll's two "Alice" books -- the Bloodhound, who you see above.

The role is handled by veteran British actor Timothy Spall, who worked with Burton on "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Spall may be best known as Peter Pettigrew in the "Harry Potter" films and he also played Mr. Poe in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events " and the malicious toady Nathaniel in "Enchanted." Spall is an especially prolific actor and has an energy that Burton admires.

"Timothy Spall is amazing," Burton said. "I love him. He's exciting because he's always doing something different, he's always working and doing some interesting project. He does all sorts of cool things."

The bloodhound's presence may be "a reaction against the Cheshire Cat" in the film, says Burton, who is no fan of felines. "The film felt a bit feline- and rodent-heavy, perhaps, and I think the Bloodhound adds a certain little gravity to it. When you see all of the characters, the animal ones, together, he added a little balance to it."

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton created the hound dog to bring a conflicted character into Alice's odyssey. As she told the Hero Complex earlier: "He kind of betrays the Hatter originally, and then he feels really badly about it, and then he assists Alice in the rest of the story. His family is being held hostage, and then in the end ... well, let's not spoil it."

The canine is one of the fully animated characters in the film and Spall's work was all at the microphone in an audio studio. The film may go on bizarre flight of fancy, but for the animated animal. Burton says, the goal was to keep them rooted in the real-world as far as their look and movement -- except for the talking part.

"We were trying to find with this character and the other talking-animal characters the right kind of animation and the goal was to keep it naturalistic and to fit into that world in the background," Burton said. "The movement of the animals is really what I'm referring to, in some animation the characters don't move the way animals do and we wanted to go the direction of being naturalistic."

-- Geoff Boucher 

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Images: Walt Disney Studios

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN:  19 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, Burton talks about his version of the Dormouse.

 

"Remember what the Dormouse said: Feed your head, feed your head..."

That's the memorable final line from the Jefferson Airplane classic "White Rabbit," but when it came time for Tim Burton to cast the role for the Dormouse for "Alice in Wonderland" he took different advice: Watch your telly.

"I've been living in England for many, many years and I'm a huge 'EastEnders' fan," said Burton, referring to the soapy (and routinely controversial) drama that has aired on BBC One since 1985. "And Barbara Windsor is just wonderful on it and in so many other things. I'm serious, she's a national treasure in England."

To date, Windsor has appeared in 1,399 episodes of "EastEnders" and is the matriarch of the Queen Victoria pub and a signature character in the television life of England; as the landlady of the Victoria she has memorably ejected scoundrels and rivals with her catchphrase "Get outta my pub!"  -- which, no surprise, has become a favorite closing-time catchphrase in certain London taverns. If you watch highlight clips of her run on the show you also notice that she is very adept at slapping people. 

Windsor's Albert Square character has become something like the British equivalent of Archie Bunker in cultural resonance, so there has been much made of her October announcement that she will leave the show to spend more time with her husband (although she added that she would like to return in 2012).

It was Windsor's voice that sealed the deal for the Dormouse role, but Burton sounds more like an autograph seeker than a world-famous filmmaker when he speaks about the 72-year-old actress.

"She's just the nicest, the greatest -- well, I don't know, it's just nice to meet people that you're a fan of, then you find they're really cool people. We're lucky to have her in the cast."

-- Geoff Boucher

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Top, the Dormouse in "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Studios). Middle, Barbara Windsor in a publicity photo for "EastEnders" (BBC). Bottom, a promotional poster for "Alice in Wonderland"
 

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 20 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today it's a chat with director of photography Dariusz Wolski.

 

The cinematographer Dariusz Wolski enjoyed his work with Tim Burton on "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" so he said yes when the director offered him the director of photography post on "Alice in Wonderland." At the time, though, Wolski didn't know that, like Alice, he was taking a tumble into a strange and unsettling world.

"'Alice' was the most unusual thing I had ever done in my life," said the 53-year-old native of Warsaw. "Tim called me and said 'I am making this movie, will you do it?' I said sure because I like the guy. I had no idea what it was going to be."

 And how would he describe that experience?

"A debacle," Wolski said with exaggerated distress.  "I think Tim hated the green more than I did by the end."

The green, of course, is the vast emerald -surface set for the film; the actors did their work for Wolski's camera while moving through a green void that was designed to hold space for the computer artists who would later fill in the digitally designed landscapes of Wonderland.

"It was quite absurd," says Wolski, who previous credits include the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films, "The Crow" and "Crimson Tide." "You look through the camera and all you see is green. 'OK so there will be a castle there, a tree here and a hill there. And a moat, yes, a moat about there. There's this entire world that will be created but but it's not there on camera. It's...difficult."

The nature of the film changed as it went along -- it's a hybrid of animation and live action, but the ratio changed as it got underway as Burton tilted toward more performances by live actors. The green set became vital to the vision Burton desired but the director -- and his cinematographer -- had never spent so much time experimenting in that particular type of movie-making laboratory.

There were other challenges. The character Alice changes sizes and that means Wolski and Burton had to compute the angles and orientation of each scene.

"Sometimes she is six inches, sometimes she is two feet, sometimes she is eight feet. The eye-lines change, everything changes. It was a very bizarre project. And lighting? You're lighting blindly. everything will be filled in later after you are done. There is a lot of use of your imagination."

Wolski will be back on familiar ground -- or familiar waters -- with  his next project, the fourth "Pirates" film. There a certain amount of relief in going back to the deep blue sea after so much time in an ocean of green.

After "Alice," would he answer an invitation to the some new green-set Wonderland the same way today? "Uh. If it's Tim? Maybe."

-- Geoff Boucher

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IMAGES: Top, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Studios). Dariusz Wolski in a handout photo (Douglas Kirkland). Depp in posters for "Sweeney Todd" and "Alice." 

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 21 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today Burton talks about the Red Queen.

 

The first thing you notice about Helena Bonham Carter in the role of the Red Queen is the size of that noggin.

 "Oh, it's true, I can't even look at Helena anymore because now her real head just seems like a small orange," director Tim Burton deadpanned in reference to his "Alice in Wonderland" star and real-life romance. "It's like she's got some shrunken head. It's sad."

After some chuckling, the filmmaker found some more reasoned descriptions of the abrasive character who makes life difficult for the denizens of Wonderland.

"In lots of illustrations and incarnations of Carroll's work through the years, it always seems like she had a big head. It was an interesting challenge for us to find the right size and weight and proportions. One of the things we wanted to do was to use the actors and their performances -- to use the real them -- and then make them different. It's still their performance but it's just made weird. We wanted to achieve this blend. That was an important dynamic."

There are some strange and subversive characters roaming Wonderland. When Burton looks at the nasty Red Queen he thinks of two people -- one of his own relatives and the infamous real-estate baroness known as the "queen of mean."

"In a lot of children's literature and other literature it's kind of the same thing over and over -- there's good queens and bad queens, and here you have that but the elements are a bit blurred," Burton said. "Everybody's weird and has weird qualities to them. She's kind of a mixture. When I look at her now, she reminds me of pictures I've seen of Leona Helmsley. There's a tiny bit of elements of my mother in there too, for some strange reason. And Helena brings her own things to it too."

The very large skull (a visual effect, obviously, added after filming) presented some challenges on the set as actors and crew had to remember to account for Carter's imaginary melon when it came to her interactions with other actors, moving through doorways, etc. It was one more challenge on a green-screen set that demanded the actors picture all sort of things that the audience would be seeing.

"This was not a place to work with method actors," Burton said. "I was very lucky to have a cast that was willing to just go for it and be manipulated, so to speak. Luckily there was no head-size requirements in their contract clauses. 'No you can't make my head more than 70% larger.' "

-- Geoff Boucher

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CREDITS: The Red Queen in "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Studios). Leona Helmsley on her way to court in 2003. (Reuters)

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 23 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage.

"Alice in Wonderland" will stage its world premiere on Feb. 25 at Odeon Leicester Square in London with Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Avril Lavigne, Alan Rickman, Anne Hathaway and Christopher Lee among the famous faces that will be on hand for the gala event, as will Mia Wasikowska, the Australian starlet who portrays the title character.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will also attend the premiere, which is being staged as a fund-raiser for The Prince’s Foundation for Children & the Arts. The film opens wide on March 5. The Burton-directed film is a hybrid of animation, live action and green-screen digital effects and will be shown in 3D. The themed celebration for the premiere will tap into the imagery of the film but the details are being kept under wraps at this point.

Other cast members expected to attend are Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse, Barbara Windsor and Michael Sheen. "Alice in Wonderland" dips into the classic surreal imagery of Lewis Carroll's writing but it is not a remake of any of the films or musicals presented under that familiar title through the years -- it's a new tale of an older Alice who goes through the rabbit hole to Wonderland and is greeted as a return visitor. But is she the same Alice who took a magic journey through the strange realm as a child?

The film is based on the script by Linda Woolverton.

-- Geoff Boucher

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PHOTO: Johnny Depp at London's Leicester Square on June 29 at the British Premiere of "Public Enemies" (Max Nash\Getty Images)

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 24 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with their "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, Burton talks about his version of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

 

Tim Burton pulled out a surprising cinematic reference when asked about his version of Tweedledee and Tweedledum for "Alice in Wonderland."

"I kept thinking about the twins in 'The Shining,' " Burton said, referring to the chilling Stanley Kubrick horror film that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. "But really any kind of twins. There's always something scary about them, in a way. Or there can be."

Burton said the strange, corpulent version of Tweedledee and Tweedledum was shaped largely by the performance of the actor who plays both, British comedian Matt Lucas, who did a "great job" tapping into the eerie nature of the brothers.

"We didn't want to do motion capture because I'm, personally, not really into that and since I like these actors I thought it would be really nice to use them -- with actors like Matt or Johnny [Depp as the Mad Hatter] or Helena [Bonham Carter as the Red Queen] I wanted to get what they brought to it," Burton explained. "So with Matt it's kind of a mix of animation and him. It's a weird mixture of things which gives his characters the disturbing quality that they so richly deserve."

In some other versions of "Alice," Tweedledee and Tweedledum seem to smirk more than they do in Burton's new take. Did he notice that? "Hmm. Well, I don't know what to say about those cute lovable little guys. Well, you can make up your own mind on that."

-- Geoff Boucher

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"Alice in Wonderland" images: Walt Disney Studios. "The Shining" image: Warner Bros.

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 25 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she, in fact, the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex, we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today, it's a conversation with Linda Woolverton, the screenwriter whose previous credits include the Disney hits "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King."

SPOILER ALERT: THIS POST REVEALS PLOT POINTS FROM THE "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" FILM

Geoff Boucher: One of the challenges of adapting Lewis Carroll is the meandering nature of Alice's adventures, which don't lend themselves to the imperatives of a feature film. Your story for this "Alice in Wonderland," though, is very different from the familiar tale. It's almost a sequel to the classic story, isn't it?

Linda Woolverton: I wasn't really thinking of it that way at all, but actually that is exactly what it is. It's a sequel. First of all, I wasn't going to try to redo Lewis Carroll and that particular version. And to my mind, it was interesting to ask, "What if Alice was older and she went back?" That was sort of why I engaged this project at all. That idea and the challenge of it.

GB: You must have immersed yourself in the classic and its imagery just to prepare....

LW: I did. I read both "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There" and I found that the biggest challenge for me would be tone. I wanted to honor the work, and I felt that to do that, it would be necessary to get the tone just right. It was an enormous challenge for me.

GB: How did you come to the project?

LW: I had that idea, the concept of her being older and going back, and I had mulled it over for quite a while. Then [producers] Suzanne and Jennifer Todd and Joe Roth asked if I had any ideas. And I told them I did, and I pitched it to them. Then Joe took the idea of it to Disney. After I wrote the first draft, Tim Burton read it and signed on. I've seen all of his films, and I've been so in awe of him, like everybody else, a fan, just like everybody else. You see his signature everywhere in his work. So when I got a chance to work with him, I was nervous, honestly. I've been lucky in my career to work with amazing and talented people, but Tim pretty much tops the list. I didn't know what it would be like working with him, but I found it to be the best experience I've ever had in the business. He asks you the question and makes you go figure out the answer as opposed to telling you the answer. What that does for you, as a writer, is that the work comes from you as opposed to coming from the outside. He did a great job too giving the characters more color, particularly the Mad Hatter. He worked with me a lot on the Hatter to make him a richer, deeper character so you empathize with him more.

GB: After Burton was on board, did you find yourself tilting your work and writing toward Burton's well-known sensibilities? In other words, did you go from writing an "Alice" project to writing a Tim Burton movie?

LW: Hmm. That's funny. Um, no, not really, and the reason is it was already in that weird, wild Lewis Carroll place anyway, which is kind of perfect for Tim Burton. So I continued in the tone I was in. I think.

GB: It must be very exciting for you to see the dramatic visuals that have sprung from the pages you wrote. I know that's the nature of being a screenwriter, but in this case it seems like it would be pretty exciting.

LW: It's thrilling. And it's everywhere, on every bus that goes by. It's very exciting for me. I'm not an artist, I don't have a great visual sense. I'm a writer, so I see it in my mind, but I'm not talented in any great visual way. So it's an honor, actually, to see something I kind of had in my head come to a full-blown, 3D fruition and from the mind of Tim Burton. For a writer, it doesn't get any better.

GB: Tell us about some of the major departures from the Carroll world as we know it. Have you created major characters from whole cloth?

LW: Two things are major departures, I'd say. There's the concept of the Oraculum, which is a never-ending calendar that is sort of an oracle. Every day in Wonderland is never the same as the day before. The days don't repeat, like Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They just go on. Every day has a new name. Like Frabjous Day. The idea of the Oraculum, which tells everyone what is going to happen on that particular day, that isn't anywhere in the original works. That was created out of whole cloth and it gives us a ticking clock on the story. The other thing is, I created a dog character and his family that helps Alice throughout the story. He's a hound dog and he kind of betrays the Hatter originally, and then he feels really badly about it, and then he assists Alice in the rest of the story. His family is being held hostage, and then in the end ... well, let's not spoil it.

GB: Did you use chunks of Carroll's writing in certain signature sequences -- weaving it in with your new narrative?

LW: The characters are from the books,  but -- except for when she falls down the rabbit hole -- there is no section that is like the books in any way, in terms of the story that I created. So the only part is the "getting there" part. More than anything else, I was influenced by the Jabberwocky poem. The poem, if you know it, it's not written in any kind of language you really understand. That's where the [dragon-like] Jabberwocky character comes from, which Alice has to slay. That's where the Bandersnatch comes from. That's where we got the influence for the tone of Outlandish, the language that we created. The Vorpal sword came from there too. That poem was a launching pad for me, really. The Jabberwocky actually influenced me more than the two books.

GB: That's very interesting and somewhat surprising. It brings to mind, too, the fact that not everyone will  embrace the changes and choices you've made. This isn't the original story, but it is called by the now-familiar name "Alice in Wonderland" -- do you expect a portion of your audience to be displeased with the disconnect?

LW: I'm sure they will be. It's audacious, what we've done. I don't know know where I got off. What was I thinking? [Laughs] I'm not joking, I was thinking when I was writing this, "Who do you think you are?" Seriously! At one point, I was in London, it was over Christmas, and I was writing, and I had been out walking in Hyde Park, and I ran up against a statue of Lewis Carroll. And I thought, "Linda, really, what have you got yourself into?" I can only say at this point that I wasn't trying to re-create his work. If anything, I hope that the movie inspires children who haven't read the books to go back and read the books.

-- Geoff Boucher

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Images: First, Tim Burton's vision in "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Studios); second and fourth image, illustrations by John Tenniel for the writings of Lewis Carroll. Third image, a photograph of screenwriter Linda Woolverton (Credit: David Burke)

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND" COUNTDOWN: 26 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she in fact the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. 

Circle the date, "Alice" fans: On Feb. 19 there will be a major event at Hollywood & Highland that will include appearances by Tim Burton and some cast members from his "Alice in Wonderland."

Which cast members? Good question, check back here for the very interesting answer.

The event kicks off at 5 p.m. and the schedule of events includes live music by half a dozen artists featured on "Almost Alice," the album that hits stores on March 2. The announced acts so far include Kerli, Never Shout Never, 3OH!3 , Metro Station and Family Force 5, but expect lots of fans to show up with high hopes that, just maybe, there might be an appearance by one of the bigger-name contributors to the album, such as Avril Lavigne, Robert Smith or the All-American Rejects.

Colleen Atwood, the Oscar-winning costume designer for the film, will be on hand to judge fan costumes too, and winners will be invited to the adjacent El Capitan Theatre and given a seat at a VIP screening of 3-D footage from the film.

The fan festivities will be streamed live on the movie's MySpace page, which also has information on other aspects of the Hollywood & Highland event and tie-in offers from Hot Topic and KIIS-FM.

-- Geoff Boucher

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Images credit: Walt Disney Studios

 

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND": 29 DAYS

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she in fact the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex we're counting down to the film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today it's a conversation with Mia Wasikowska, the 20-year-old Aussie newcomer who plays the title role. 

GB: The film is called "Alice in Wonderland," but really this is neither a pure adaptation of Lewis Carroll's writings nor a remake of previous films. This is a whole new story, correct?

MW: It's a completely different and new story, but it has a lot of the same characters in it. It has the same feel of the original stories, but it's really fun to explore a story that goes further and imagines what all these characters would be like several years down the tracks. Alice doesn't have a recollection of her first visit there. She's gone back and is discovering this world and finding herself again in this place that she doesn't even remember.

GB: There are very few directors who have a style and vision that is instantly recognizable -- perhaps Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino are on that list among contemporary filmmakers -- but there's no question that Tim Burton is at the very top of that list. If you walk into a theater where a Burton movie is playing, you know it right away. That must make him an intriguing figure for actors.

MW: Absolutely. It is so cool to be part of his vision, to be able to start a project and see it all the way through to the end. It's almost like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was such a fan of his films growing up, movies like "Edward Scissorhands" and "Ed Wood." He has such a distinct style and a distinct sense of humor. And working with him it's been such an amazing thing to see something first on the page and then watch it become real as he brings it to life. He has such a cool energy too.

GB: This movie took you into the world of green-screen moviemaking. I visited the set and it was a little disorientating just walking around in there; it messes up your depth of perception. Was it a struggle for you in any way?

MW: It is really strange. But Wonderland itself is bizarre and weird and comical and confusing, so it's appropriate that, as you say, we were in this green-screen environment where it doesn't always make sense to you. Things were just really odd and weird, and I suppose that was suitable to what we were working on. It put you in the right frame of mind. And it made you rely on your imagination more.

GB: Tim's background is an artist and, as you say, he is so visual in his storytelling -- when he's working with the actors, does that help him or handicap him in communicating what he wants from the performances? Sometimes people with intense visual talents aren't the best communicators.

MW: Right from the beginning we had a very similar view as to how Alice should be played, so we were on a similar page right from the beginning, which was very helpful. He's very precise and clear and patient, and that was exactly what I needed as far as direction in this kind of film because it was so complicated [in the filming process]. One of the most interesting things about Tim is that he does communicate visually, but he is also very precise and uses a language that people can identify with. In that way he is a real genius.

GB: You're at the start of your career, but in this film you're performing with an elite and experienced cast with Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, etc. Coming in, was that something that allowed you to relax a bit or did it have the opposite effect?

MW: They were all so wonderful and made me feel really welcome. It would seem intimidating to work with such big names, but then each, individually, were such lovely people that it only made me feel comfortable. It was wonderful.

GB: What was your sense of Johnny Depp, specifically?

MW: He is such a cool guy. He has the humanity to keep this sense of self. He's very kind and generous and so smart. To be able to watch Johnny -- just like with Tim -- as he takes something from the page to reality and how hard he works and what he brought to it and how much he brought to it, it's was amazing. It is inspiring too that he does things in a purely joyous way and has fun with it all, because so often there are people who seem disgruntled. To keep that love of what you do is so important. And watching him and Tim work together is fun. They have a very deep rapport. Watching them, it's like they speak their very own language.

GB: Coming into this project, I'm sure you made a lot of decisions about what you wanted to do with the character and maybe a few about what you didn't want to do with the character. What were some of the things you didn't want to do with your Alice?

MW: That's an interesting question. I suppose I would say I didn't want to bring in a lot of the baggage that is associated with "Alice in Wonderland" and just find the Alice that a lot of girls would identify with. I want to make her identifiable. She's at a crossroads in her life. So many people have an idea of how Alice should be played and there are these images in the public mind about her, but I wanted to keep to my own ideas how she would be and be true to that in the performance. The most important thing was to find the girl beneath this iconic figure.

-- Geoff Boucher

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Photos: Top, Mia Wasikowska. Credit: Marzena Wasikowska. "Alice in Wonderland " images: Walt Disney Studios.

"ALICE IN WONDERLAND": 30 DAY COUNTDOWN

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with "Alice in Wonderland," a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor -- but is she in fact the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex we're counting down to film's March 5 release with daily coverage. Today it's a conversation with Danny Elfman, the composer of the film's score and Burton's favorite maestro.

 

GB: I imagine you're feeling pretty good right now. The only thing better than taking on an exciting new project is actually finishing an exciting new project.

DE: Being done with "Alice" is a great relief, to put it mildly. Tim told me six months ago that this one would go right up to the 59th minute of the 11th hour. He knew it then. I was still doing last bits of music on Sunday and that was with the print-mastering beginning Monday. It doesn't get any tighter. But I knew going into it that this would be insanity. That's the nature of the beast. It's a function of motion-capture projects -- you're going to wait for shots to come in. You're trying to finish the movie and the shots are still coming in. Things are happening at the very last second. It's very challenging. But you can only go at the pace that it goes.

GB: What was the very last thing you finished on Sunday?

DE: It was this crazy dance that the Mad Hatter does. It's called the Fudderwacken. That was something we had tried many different approaches before we reached the one that is in the movie.

GB: What were your compass points coming into this project?

DE: Your guiding principles on a narrative type of story like this, it's always the same. The same guiding principles, rather -- hopefully not the same score over and over again. [Laughs] Unfortunately it's common in my business. But we try to avoid it. But really it's about finding the narrative and finding the themes and trying to knit things together and form continuity. The decision-making process is about who gets a theme and who doesn't. You can't just give every character a theme. It just starts getting too crazy.

 Experimentation for me is, usually, finding a central theme and then two or three secondary themes and determining how they're going to play. That's the fun of it, the surprise of it, too. Sometimes I'll find I'm using a theme over a character and it's not necessarily their theme and I don't know why I'm doing it, but I'll go with it anyway and there ends up being a certain logic to it -- [the scene] is about a certain character or about a trajectory of a certain character.

 

GB: I imagine there are many ways to follow a "safe" path that amps up emotion and excitement but can undermine the film's identity, right?

DE: All of it, the challenge is to be inventive but do the purpose, which is to add continuity and to add energy and motion and anticipation and a sense of something building. To get that sense of forward motion. To do it poorly in this kind of film -- a real active film, an adventure film -- is actually really easy. You can always just play for energy, orchestrate something very active. Anybody who understands film composition could that in their sleep. The hard part is, can you do that and still come up with something that gives it a sense of identity? That's really hard.

GB: The framing sequences in the film take place in England of the 19th century. Does that influence any choices you make?

DE: No. In essence, if I just played 19th century music it would get really boring really fast. Even in the context of a serious period piece, a drama, let's say, taking place in the 19th century, you're still perhaps only going to allude to the period. If you get too strict with it, it's going to get really boring. Eventually, you're going to play the characters and you're going to play internally, and when you start playing internally there really aren't any rules. In something like "Alice in Wonderland" there are even less rules. Who knows what kind of music does or doesn't belong in Wonderland, after all? Outside of Wonderland, at the beginning of the film and at the end of the movie, I'm really just trying to establish some of the themes that will come back. Essentially, Alice's primary theme and, because she starts as a little girl, I have what I called the "little Alice" theme, which I bring back later at times. I'm just planting seeds at the beginning of the film.

 

GB: And then when the film gets to Wonderland?

DE: I open up and get a little crazier, but I'm still incorporating the same thematic ideas. I am a believer in thematic unity and the importance of that in a storytelling film. There are certain types of film where it simply doesn't matter, but when you have a crazy story that you're following through and there are a lot of crazy characters, it does matter.

GB: In talking to Tim Burton, it's clear he considered the challenge in adapting the source material was the lack of a strong narrative arc.

DE: Well, you have to realize this isn't "Alice in Wonderland" from Lewis Carroll's book. It isn't that story up on the screen in any way, shape or form. It's really taking the characters and putting them in a whole new story. It's actually more like a sequel. We start off with Alice as a little girl, but we quickly pick up on Alice 10 years later. She's returning to Wonderland and there is the story. Is it or isn't it the right Alice that they have brought down to Wonderland?

GB: Sure, I think that's become especially clear with the latest trailer. I have to say that, personally, it makes me much more interested in the film. Watching a pure retelling of familiar stories isn't especially alluring to me.

DE: No one can dispute the brilliance of the book. To put that on the screen? That would be really interesting, but it's hard to say what kind of movie it would make, you know, for an hour-and-a-half. So they came up with a concept: Alice is [almost] 20, and she's going to chase the rabbit down the hole and you're going to see all the same stuff, but you also hear these voices. "Is it her?" "It doesn't look like her." "I'm telling you it's her." And then she has to find out if it's a mistake, if she's the right Alice or not. She's been brought there for a purpose. But you still have all the same stuff [as far as imagery] with the Mad Hatter and the tea party and everything.

GB: I think an older Alice makes the film more interesting right off the bat.

DE: Yes, and Mia [Wasikowska, the Australian newcomer] is wonderful as Alice. I had never seen her in anything before. She's a great Alice. She really is like a child-woman, a child and a woman both. She has a wonderful simplicity but she has to go through this emotional growth in the story. And Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, well, that's a slam dunk. When Johnny gets in this type of role he really has fun with it. The movie is a treat and a feast for the eyes. It was fun to do even though it was intense. I don't mind intense. When you're geared up for it and you're expecting it, it's 'OK, let me have it, I'm ready."

GB: You've worked with Tim Burton on more than a dozen film projects, including some of his signature films -- the two "Batman" films, "Beetlejuice," Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Edward Scissorhands" -- and I'm curious how your collaboration has changed through the years? Either in rhythm or approach?

DE: The joy of working with Tim is and always has been his unpredictability. I never know how he is going to react to something. People say, "Oh, you've worked with him so long, you must know when you write something that he will love it." It's quite the contrary. I've never found the secret, magic key. He started unpredictable and he is extremely unpredictable for me still. In that is also the joy. Over the years, his favorite stuff has often been the stuff I played for him as an afterthought. He gravitates to the areas that others directors do not allow. Like the character Edward Scissorhands having a theme which is almost Eastern European Jewish. A lot of directors would have said, 'Hey, wait a minute, Edward's not Jewish and he's not from Europe." Tim doesn't ask these types of questions. He responds completely viscerally to everything and immediately likes it or doesn't like it. I have to figure out why. Honestly, after 25 years I can't say that he is any easier for me to work with or any more predictable, and that actually is what I look forward to the most in our collaboration.

-- Geoff Boucher

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PHOTO: Top and third photo: Danny Elfman at his home in Hancock Park in 2003. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times). Second and bottom photo: Mia  Wasikowska in "Alice in Wonderland" (Walt Disney Studios). Fourth photo: Elfman in rock-star mode, performing with his old band Oingo Boingo in Irvine in 1995 (Christine Cotter/Los Angeles Times)