Elfman Interviews Burton

Interview Magazine has a unique new article: Danny Elfman interviewing Tim Burton. The long-time collaborators discuss Burton's favorite films, the elements of the macabre in his films and artwork, how Alice in Wonderland is such a different movie from his previous films, and what really scares him. Here is the entire interview:

Tim Burton

By Danny Elfman
Photography Sebastian Kim

In 1984, Paul Reubens was looking for a director. The film in development was Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), and Reubens, who had been working on the perversely juvenile conceptual-art project for about 15 years, was desperate to find someone he could trust to direct it with style. So, as people in Los Angeles do, he asked around at a party. One of the guests had just seen Frankenweenie—Tim Burton’s 1984 live-action short about a dog that is brought back to life. Burton had no previous experience as a feature-film director, but the two men immediately bonded. Only 25 at the time, Burton got the job, and the pair watched as their strange but imaginative film earned more than $40 million at the box office.

Of course, these days, Burton doesn’t need to rely on word of mouth to find work. Throughout the many stages of his 30 years behind the camera, there has remained a consistent underlying emotional current in Burton’s work—a delicate balance of sadness, humor, and horror that matches his eye for gothic beauty and mythical surrealism. The 51-year-old filmmaker has written, directed, and/or produced more than 20 movies. Between 1988 and 1996, he was responsible for Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Ed Wood (1994), and Mars Attacks! (1996). It was also during this period that he began working with Johnny Depp, who has acted in seven of his films—a transformative relationship for both men.

Burton grew up in the suburbs of California, and has often said that, as a kid, he found the realities of everyday life—parents, teachers, school, breakfast—far more terrifying than monsters or movies. What are zombie pet dogs, after all, compared to real-life threats like dullness and loss? Burton’s characters are born outcasts, perpetually at odds with their identities and in some ways monsters themselves. His fairy-tale endings are a little messier than most standard Hans Christian Andersen fare; Edward Scissorhands does not get the girl.

Last November, New York’s Museum of Modern Art honored Burton not only for his film work but also as a visual artist, with a retrospective that displayed a large collection of his drawings—including versions of Jack Skellington, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, and Batman. His next film, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, due out next month, is a suitably trippy semi-animated adventure featuring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter (Burton’s partner), Anne Hathaway, and Crispin Glover. Danny Elfman, who has been composing music for Burton’s films since they worked together on Pee-wee (and who also did Alice in Wonderland) spoke to him recently about how he has made his way as an artist—and about what really scares him.


DANNY ELFMAN: Okay, we’re rolling. Be aware that we can stop and start; we can even redo a question if you don’t like what you’ve said. You can suggest a topic. No pressure.

TIM BURTON: I say stream of consciousness, and whatever happens, happens.

ELFMAN: Then let’s start with something easy. Growing up, which films and directors had the greatest impact on you?

BURTON: Well, being a big monster-movie fan, the Universal monster movies and the Japanese science-fiction movies, like the ones by Ishir¯o Honda. Then there were the Italians, like Mario Bava.

ELFMAN: Which particular films really got under your skin?

BURTON: Bava’s Black Sunday [1960] is probably the one that did it. I remember, in L.A., I’d watch a whole weekend of horror movies. And after you watched about two movies in a row, you’d go into this dream state, and sometime around 3 A.M. on the weekend, Black Sunday came on. It really was like your subconscious, like a dream, almost like hallucinating. I also think that I’m one of the few fans who actually likes dubbing in foreign films. I love Fellini or Bava dubbed because it adds a surreal nature. I prefer dubbing because the images are so strong you don’t want to take your eyes away to read the subtitles.

ELFMAN: Did any film give you nightmares?

BURTON: I never really got nightmares from movies. In fact, I recall my father saying when I was three years old that I would be scared, but I never was. I was much more terrified by my own family and real life, you know? I think it would be more of a nightmare if someone told me to go to school or eat my breakfast. I would wake up in a cold sweat about those issues. I think that movies probably help you sort those kinds of things out and make you feel more comfortable. I did get freaked out when I saw The Exorcist [1973] for the first time, but that was about it. Images like the ones in Black Sunday stay with you. I always just enjoyed them.

ELFMAN: That takes me to monsters from our childhoods. How do you think they stack up against the monsters of today?

BURTON: The thing I love about the old monsters is that they had such a strong, immediately identifiable image. I find that a lot of monsters today are just so busy. They have so many little tentacles and flaps and whatever else that they don’t have the kind of strength in their images that the old monsters had. It’s also due to the CGI heaviness. You’re missing the human element—like Boris Karloff, who actually played the monsters. Even in Creature From the Black Lagoon [1954], the guy had a complete costume, so you felt like there was a human being underneath. I think that’s important. It’s always an interesting challenge to see if you can create a character that’s got emotion. It can be done and it has been done.

ELFMAN: You once said that monsters are usually more heartfelt than the humans around them in those movies. Do you still feel that way?

BURTON: Oh, yeah. It’s like society. In fact, it’s probably gotten more extreme. We sort of equate the monster with the individual, getting devoured by bureaucracy. Even in making films with studios, you used to be able to deal with people as individuals. Now you’re dealing with a vague bureaucracy, where no one’s in charge when there’s a problem. [laughs] So I think that’s only intensified over the years.

ELFMAN: I guess there is a certain nostalgia for early cinema. Some of those old movies hold up and others don’t.

BURTON: There are certain movies that really don’t. But the ones that you really love, I think they do. Obviously, the pacing of movies has gotten much quicker, but the old ones have a slower dreamscape that weaves its way into you. When you watch older movies, you don’t think, Gee, I wish this cut were quicker.

ELFMAN: It does make it harder to play them for our kids, because they expect a pacing that didn’t exist then and they have to get past that.

BURTON: That’s true. Even before kids watch a movie, they’re already accustomed to video games and stuff. So that sense of slower pacing is already gone. It’s unfortunate because there’s something very introspective about movies that give you a chance to dream.

ELFMAN: You used to hang out in graveyards when you were a kid, didn’t you? I’m assuming that was because it was very peaceful and calm there, that going to graveyards allowed you to be introspective.

BURTON: People think that it’s morbid, but it really was much more quietly exciting. There was a mystery about it, a juxtaposition of life and death in a place where you really weren’t supposed to be.

ELFMAN: Did you ever believe—or half believe—in ghosts?

BURTON: Yeah. I’ve seen things and felt things. I think most people do. I think it’s just how much you suppress it. I don’t go out and say, “Oh, my god, I was abducted by a UFO,” or “I’ve seen these ghosts.”

ELFMAN: Did you feel any hauntings at the graveyards where you hung out?

BURTON: You feel an energy. Most people say about graveyards, “Oh, it’s just a bunch of dead people; it’s creepy.” But for me, there’s an energy to it that is not creepy or dark. It has a positive sense to it. It’s like all of that Day of the Dead imagery. That, to me, is the right idea. It’s a celebration. It’s much more lighthearted. There is humor involved—color and life. We talked about it when we did Corpse Bride [2005]. That was going more toward the Day of the Dead culture, which is much more positive.

ELFMAN: Once, a long time ago, we went into a room at CTS Studios that was supposed to have a child ghost haunting it. Do you remember? Everyone in the studio kept telling us about it, so we went in there and just stood in this dark, creepy room for a while. Nothing happened—as things usually don’t. Have you ever been in a room where you might have had an experience?

BURTON: I’ve been in certain hotel rooms in Venice.

ELFMAN: Did you make it a point to go into these rooms?

BURTON: I think anytime you try, it ain’t gonna happen. It always seems to occur when you’re sort of open but not thinking about it. So, no, I’ve never held a séance.

ELFMAN: I want to ask you about Vincent Price. When I first met you, you told me how much of a hero of yours he was. Then I saw the animated short you did, Vincent [1982], which was inspired by him. Had that been brewing for a long time?

BURTON: It’s obviously based on the feeling of watching his movies. I felt connected with him, and that helped me get through life. I had written it all and done it in a kind of storybook or storyboard fashion, and I just decided to send it to him. I had no idea what would happen. It was most likely that he wouldn’t respond, but he responded pretty immediately, and he seemed to really get it. That made me feel really great. He didn’t just see it as a fan thing. That’s why it was really special to me. It’s hard to get projects going—and also hard to meet somebody you’ve admired. You never know what they’re going to be like. They could be a complete asshole, you know? But he was so great and supportive, and even though it was a short film, he helped get it made. That was my first experience in this kind of world, and it was a really positive one. It stays with you forever. When times are tough, all you have to do is remember back to those kind of moments—those surreal, special moments—and they really keep you going. To discover that somebody like Vincent Price, who had been in the movie business for a million years, and to see that he was still such an interesting guy—that he was so into art, and helping this college in East L.A., giving lots of artwork, and still curious about everything—it helps you to keep going when you feel jaded.



ELFMAN: In art school, you had an epiphany where you didn’t care anymore about drawing the way your teachers wanted you to. What happened exactly?

BURTON: It was at the farmers’ market. We went out to draw people. I was sitting there, getting really frustrated trying to draw the way they were telling me to draw. So I just said, “Fuck it.” I truly felt like I had taken a drug and my mind had suddenly expanded. It’s never happened to me again quite that same way. From that moment on, I just drew a different way. I didn’t draw better, I just drew differently. It freed me up to not really care. It reminds me of when you’re drawing as a child. Children’s drawings all look pretty cool. But at some point, kids get better at drawing, or they say, “Oh, I can’t draw anymore.” Well, that’s because someone told you that you couldn’t—it doesn’t mean that you can’t. It taught me to stick to what’s inside of me, to let that flourish in the best way it can. I’ve been waiting for that feeling to come back ever since, and it hasn’t yet. At least it happened once. [laughs] It literally happened at that moment; the drawings changed right there.

ELFMAN: Then, interestingly, you became an animator at Disney. Clearly you didn’t fit the mold there, but your talents didn’t go unnoticed either.

BURTON: Again, it’s one of those weird timing things. If it had happened at any other point in the company’s history, I probably would’ve been fired. But the company was so directionless then, and I was under the wing of a great animator, this guy Glen Keane. I was kind of his assistant, and he tried to help me draw foxes and do all of that, but I was useless. They eventually realized that, too, but instead of firing me, they gave me other projects because they liked my drawings. That lasted a year. And then I drew where I wanted for a couple of years. And that was very formative because out of all that came things like The Nightmare Before Christmas and Vincent.

ELFMAN: I don’t know if many fans are aware of the depth of your infatuation with drawing and art. When I describe how I got started writing songs for Nightmare, people are surprised that it didn’t start with a script. Instead, you had a story and a series of amazing drawings.

BURTON: That’s why I’m very grateful for the show at MoMA. It hasn’t been about categorization—like, “Oh, that’s film. This is art. That’s photography.” It’s trying to show that it’s all just a process and that there are different ways to approach things. I think both you and I hate categorization. People are always trying to stick you in a box and say, “Oh, he’s in a rock band. Now he’s a composer, but he only composes this kind of stuff.” You fight that every single time you do something. The MoMA exhibit shows that each different approach is all part of the same thing—an idea—whether it’s written or drawn or a piece of music or whatever.

ELFMAN: I’d like to touch on a hidden talent of yours, which is writing rhymes and lyrics. When I began the songs for Nightmare, I was surprised to see that you had already written a lot of the great lyric pieces, all of which got assimilated and incorporated into the final songs.

BURTON: When I was growing up, Dr. Seuss was really my favorite. There was something about the lyrical nature and the simplicity of his work that really hit me. I’m always amazed by people that can do it in the simplest way, but yet it is sophisticated and emotional and telling.

ELFMAN: For the record, my favorite lyric line is “Perhaps it’s the head that I found in the lake,” from The Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s your line, not mine.

BURTON: But you made it sound good.

ELFMAN: Now I want to take you to the Batman moment in your career: It’s only your third feature, and you’re still the new kid on the block. You don’t even have a reel—other than comedies, you don’t have a commercial track record. And as I recall, the pressure was enormous. The production was enormous. The budget, for the time, was enormous. How did you cope with that?

BURTON: It helped being in England. Not much was going on there at the time. You could really go and focus on the movie and not be involved in all of the hype, like “Who’s going to play Batman? Oh, they picked Michael [Keaton]”—all this kind of hoopla, which is just a waste of time. So being in England was very helpful. Even though it was a big-budget thing, it was still slightly under the radar.

ELFMAN: So you got a little bit of protection.

BURTON: A little bit. Jack Nicholson was obviously a big star. He was very protective of me. He had a lot of clout, and when people were getting on my case, he could use it to cut me some slack. He was very supportive.

ELFMAN: I’ve always wondered if part of the reason for moving on to Edward Scissorhands right after Batman had something to do with wanting a smaller project with less pressure attached to it.

BURTON: I think it was a bit of that. But the weird thing was that trying to make it low budget, after doing Batman, was very difficult. Everyone thought, Oh, you made this big movie, so this is another big movie. But it wasn’t a big movie. I was out in the swampland in Florida, and people wanted to charge me a million dollars to use it because I had just made Batman. So there was a lot of having to walk away from certain things just to get the movie made. But, yes, it was nice to go back to a smaller project. It’s only gotten worse in this era. When I did Batman, you actually didn’t hear the word “franchise.” That wasn’t even in the language.

ELFMAN: Right. It hadn’t entered the vocabulary yet. For Scissorhands, you had great faith in Johnny [Depp] right from the get-go. He was pretty much unproven at that point—he really only had a TV show [21 Jump Street]. As I recall, you were under some pressure to cast someone else. How were you able to find the faith to see something beyond what Johnny had shown in his TV work? There was clearly more to him, and you saw that.

BURTON: It was exactly for that reason. Meeting him, you realize that there is
this perception of him as a teen idol, but he’s really not that person. That’s just how he was perceived by society—and thus who he was. And that’s exactly like Edward: “I’m not what people think I am. I’m something else.”

ELFMAN: You got all that just from meeting him?

BURTON: Yeah, absolutely. That’s the thing. I could tell that he understood. You can always feel if someone understands the dynamic. There’s a certain pain in that. Johnny’s not Tiger Beat, even if that’s how the rest of the world saw him—as a page of a teen magazine. He’s got a lot more depth, a lot more emotion. There’s a certain sadness when that happens to people. So it’s very easy to identify without even really talking too much about it.

ELFMAN: You’re known for working on amazing sets and compositing shots that use as few effects as possible—maybe with the exception of Mars Attacks!, and even then you had sets and actors and animated Martians that were realized pretty quickly. Now we are about to see Alice in Wonderland, which is a totally different animal. What has it been like working on that?

BURTON: It’s completely opposite from the way I usually make a film. Usually the first thing I know is the vibe and feel of a scene. It’s the first thing you see. Now it’s the last thing you see. It’s like actually being in Alice in Wonderland. It’s completely fucked up. You understand that when you’re shooting—that some percentage of what you’re filming isn’t going to be exactly like what it ends up being, because so many elements are added later. It’s in your head, and it can be unsettling. I did find it quite difficult because you don’t see a shot until the very end of the process. Even when we were making Nightmare or Corpse Bride, you’d get a couple of shots and know what the vibe was. This is completely ass-backward.

ELFMAN: We’re going to end with a little free association here.

BURTON: Uh-oh. Always a bad sign.

ELFMAN: Reality. [Burton laughs] As a kid, what was your idea of reality?

BURTON: Well, it’s those things that I always loved. People say, “Monster movies—they’re all fantasy.” Well, fantasy isn’t fantasy—it’s reality if it connects to you. It’s like a dream. You have a nightmare, and it’s got all this crazy imagery, but it’s real. You wake up in a cold sweat, freaking out. That’s completely real. So I always found that those people trying to categorize normal versus abnormal or light versus dark, yada yada, are all missing the point.

ELFMAN: I remember what you said to me when you were fighting the R rating on Batman Returns, which was absurd because there was nothing really violent in the whole movie to put an R rating on. You said, “You know what’s scary to a little kid? When they hear one of their relatives coming home and knocking over furniture because they’re drunk. That’s frightening to a kid. Not monsters!”

BURTON: Exactly! Or when an aunt who has blood-red lipstick and lips three feet long comes to kiss you dead-on on your face. That’s terrifying!

ELFMAN: [laughs] Okay. Animals. How did animals play into your perception of reality?

BURTON: Well, I had a dog—a couple of dogs.

ELFMAN: Maybe a raccoon, too.

BURTON: And a raccoon. Two dogs and a raccoon can very likely be your heart and soul. I guess it’s pretty sad, but it can be the strongest emotional tie you have. There’s a purity to that love. It’s very good to remember and good to hang onto and aspire to on the human side. At least it shows that it’s possible.

ELFMAN: Freaks.

BURTON: We’ve all been called that before. [laughs] When I hear that word, I hear, “Somebody that I would probably like to meet and would get along with.”

ELFMAN: Good and evil.

BURTON: Hard to tell sometimes. That’s the thing. Especially when you’re making a movie, you experience good and evil about 20 to 100 times a day. You’re not quite sure where one crosses over into the other. It’s quite a slippery slope, that one.

ELFMAN: Has your sense of reality shifted, now that you have children?

BURTON: Obviously, you get more grounded, but at the same time it gets more surreal. And it’s nice to reconnect to those abstract feelings. It’s good as an artist to always remember to see things in a new, weird way. It’s like weird, twisted poetry, the way kids perceive things. And quite beautiful sometimes. They kind of blow your mind and ground you at the same time. So it’s great.

ELFMAN: Last question. You don’t have to answer it—this is just a personal question. I’ve always wondered, but I’ve never really asked you: Why in the world did I get hired to do Pee-wee’s Big Adventure? Because it didn’t make any sense, even to me.

BURTON: [laughs] We never talked about it, did we? It’s very simple to me. I used to come to see your band play at places like Madame Wong’s.

ELFMAN: But that’s so different from film scoring.

BURTON: It wasn’t to me. I always thought you were very filmic in some way. I don’t even know what that means! There was a strong narrative thrust to what you were doing. And it was theatrical. Also, because I hadn’t made a feature-length film yet, I just responded to your work. It was very nice to be connected to somebody who I felt had done so much more than I had at that point.

ELFMAN: Well, Johnny and I both owe you.

BURTON: It’s all great. Like I said, what’s great is that I’ve known you longer than anybody. There’s something quite exciting when you have a history with somebody and you see them do new and different things. We have our next challenge set out for us, that’s for sure. But let’s have you watch it, and see if you want to quit.



Photo credit: Tim Burton in New York, July 2009

Danny Elfman is a singer-songwriter and an Academy award–nominated composer. He has scored the music for movies like Batman, Milk, and Tim Burton’s upcoming film Alice in Wonderland.

"Alice in Wonderland" Super Bowl TV Spot

In case you missed it during the Super Bowl, here's the new TV spot for Alice in Wonderland in HD, featuring some new footage:

Helena Bonham Carter on "Alice," Burton

The Guardian asks actress Helena Bonham Carter about her career thus far, Alice in Wonderland, how her life has change since meeting Tim Burton, and much more. Also included are pictures from a Wonderland-inspired photo-shoot. You can read the entire article here, but here are some notable excerpts:


'I’m ­often criticised for what I wear. That’s my main label in the press now: disastrous dresser!'
Photograph: Gustavo Papaleo

Helena Bonham Carter discussed her exagerrated, tyrannical role in Alice as the Red Queen. "I've brought myself. It's me... in Alice," she says. Holding up a cardboard cutout of her character, she explained, "She's got Tourette's. She just says, 'Off with their heads!' all the time."

Bonham Carter has worked with Tim Burton in six films so far. Alice in Wonderland has gathered tremendous hype (and cost a bundle, too -- $250,000,000), but the actress revealed that she has not seen the film yet. No one has. The movie has been kept top secret. Then again, she may never see it. She and co-star Johnny Depp cannot stand seeing themselves on screen. "Johnny doesn't watch ­anything he's in. That's slightly comforting. You think if Johnny Depp can't watch himself..."

It doesn't help that Burton seems to dress her up in outrageous characters, either. "No, I can never rely on Tim to make me pretty."


'We do dress up at Halloween.'
Photo: Gustavo Papaleo


But playing such extreme and quirky characters has been working just fine for Bonham Carter. Prior to meeting Burton in 2001, she was mostly relegated to posh, corset-wearing roles in period dramas. She first emerged with a proper role in film at age 19 in A Room With a View, and went on to be a poster girl for EM Forster, English roses and the corset ­industry. Since then, her resume has altered dramatically.

"Ageing has helped hugely," she says. "There's no question I'm a better actor, and you leave ­behind a certain typecasting. I was like the corset bimbo." She stops, has a slurp of smoothie, a bite of toastie and starts again. "Well, not quite bimbo, but you know what I mean. The corset sex symbol, I suppose. Now I'm not going to be the sex symbol, I'm going to be the granny." She changes her mind by the mouthful. "Well, not quite granny."


Does Tim have a key to her house? 'No… He always visits, which is really touching.'
Photo: Gustavo Papaleo

Bonham Carter had had plenty of boyfriends, ­including Kenneth Branagh, but had never lived with anybody. "I remember I did think, 'Wouldn't it be nice if Mr Right moved in next door?'"

Eventually, he did. During the filming on Planet of the Apes in 2001 (with Bonham Carter as the female lead, the human rights advocating chimpanzee Ari), she met the director, Tim Burton. At the time, she barely talked to him. The only thing she remembers him saying to her is that he knew he wanted her as one of his apes, and that he had once lived in Hampstead and it was the only place in the world he'd felt at home. When the film was completed, they began their relationship, when she was 35, and he bought the home next door to hers in Hampstead. Today, they have two children, six-year-old Billy Ray and two-year-old Nell.

After meeting Burton, her acting work and wardrobe changed. "I'm ­often criticised for what I wear. That's my main label in the press now: disastrous dresser!" she exclaimed. "Sometimes it's really offensive, but it's kind of affectionate now. We're like the 'bonkers couple'."

Another common label that is tagged on her is 'goth,' but Bonham Carter is uncertain that it's an appropriate adjective for herself. "I don't like the music particularly, I've got no goth records. Is it the predominant black? The make-up? And the whiteness? The white thing. Yes... Tim sometimes puts grey make-up on for the press and he doesn't tell me, so afterwards I'm like, 'You're ill!' He goes, nah, it's the grey make-up. Heeheeehee!"

Burton gets similar descriptions in the press, but she was equally skeptical about that description. "He doesn't like the music, either. But we do dress up at Halloween." Do they just stay at home in their make-up, or go out? "No, we go out and play. I don't know... well, he likes death... It's not that he likes it, but he's considered it in his work."


'In the six weeks when you’re up for an Oscar, there’s a little ­window where you’re offered everything. Seventh week, when you haven’t got it, you’re fucked. Forget it.'
Photo: Gustavo Papaleo

Burton is still considered an oddball, and their aesthetics do differ from the Hollywood conventions. Bonham Carter speculated that Burton might have Asperger's Syndrome in the past, but she now says she tends to get such observations incorrectly. "All the auties love Nightmare Before Christmas." Again, she apologises, this time for the word ­auties. "I played Jacqui Jackson, a single mum with children on the autistic spectrum, and I feel partly it's OK to talk like that because I know her, know that world, and she calls them auties." It makes perfect sense what she says about ­Burton. "I think he felt very isolated in Burbank where he was born. Edward Scissorhands is a ­version of where he was brought up. It is a bit ­Alice In Wonderland – I don't belong here." Whatever he may or may not be, there is no doubt that Burton is a unique, creative person. "He's someone who's very creative and has a mad ­exterior, but he is funda­mentally very sane and ­practical. I don't think we're crazy at all, to be honest," Bonham Carter said.

They're practical in domestic arrangements, too. Needing their independent space, she has one house, he has ­another and the children have the third to play in with the nanny. Do she and ­Burton see each other much at home? "He always visits, which is really touching. He's always coming over." Does he have a key to her house? "No, the houses are joined. We have a throughway. Journalists think there's an underground tunnel, gothic. It's ­actually quite above ground, lots of light." Do they sleep together? "Sometimes. There's a snoring issue... I talk, he snores. The other thing is, he's an insomniac, so he needs to watch ­television to get to sleep. I need silence."

In the interview, she went on to show some family photos on her mobile phone. "That's Bill as a pirate for his pirates party. He's so ­unbelievably patient. Nell's two, she's going to destroy everything. He's­ ­introvert, she's extrovert. He's very tender, she's much more traditionally masculine."


'I feel more sexy than ever, not because I’m sexually attractive, I just feel I’ve grown into my body.'

Hair: Carol Hemming. Make-up: Louise Constad at Mandy Coakley Represents using Benefit.
Photo: Gustavo Papaleo.


She thinks she has changed since being with ­Burton. "He's made me more aware. He thinks I overact all the time. He's got a thing about me having a very mobile face. Tim has often said I've got hyperactive eyebrows – he calls them the dancing cater­pillars. He's all for minimal ­expression. He likes to simplify things, I ­complicate them. I think we can do this or this or this, optionitis, then I get frozen because I don't know which one."

Has she changed him? "People who know him say I have, and I feel really flattered. Made him talk more. He didn't ­really talk before. He's much shyer than me. Every ­sentence was ­unfinished. I used to say he was a home for ­abandoned ­sentences. Now he actually finishes them." She sounds so chuffed, as if the thought has struck her for the first time. She is often ­described as Burton's muse, but that makes her uneasy. She says she would not be upset if in future he didn't cast her; there's always going to be a film for which she isn't right. "You can't take it personally." But what if he decided he no longer wanted her in any of his films? "Well, if it's obvious that I'm right for it, I probably will take it personally. I'll let you know when it happens." Could their ­relationship survive that? "It will be interesting. It's not without its pressures, working with Tim. It worked on Alice. Sweeney was very stressful, very hard on our relationship." Is he a boss or partner on set? "No, he's a partner in our private life, but when he's directing, he's the boss. And maybe I confuse that."

At age 43, she feels adult for the first time in her life, and capable of playing almost any role. "I feel more sexy than ever, not because I'm sexually attractive, I just feel I've grown into my body." Did she feel sexy when she was a ­beautiful young thing? "No, absolutely not. ­Totally uncomfortable. It took me ages to grow into being a woman, into being happy with it. When I was young, I believed in being androgynous, you can't flaunt it, you can't use it. The whole thing was just something yuck, to be ­embarrassed about. And now it's just like, 'Hey, enjoy it!' Now I feel fine about shapes and things. It's nice to have curves. To be a woman."

"I suppose I'm just a late developer."

"Alice in Wonderland": Disney's "Ultimate Fan Event"

Walt Disney Pictures has just released a very thorough press release on what is being called the "Ultimate Fan Event" for devoted Alice in Wonderland fanatics:

BURBANK, Calif., Feb 04, 2010 --WALT DISNEY PICTURES AND BUENA VISTA RECORDS JOIN FORCES WITH HOT TOPIC, KIIS-FM, MYSPACE AND MUSICAL ARTISTS FROM "ALMOST ALICE" FOR ULTIMATE FAN EVENT FEB. 19, 2010, AT HOLLYWOOD & HIGHLAND CENTER

Film Stars, Filmmakers and Artists 3OH!3, Metro Station, Family Force 5, Kerli and Never Shout Never on Concert Roster; Entire Event to be Streamed Live on MySpace

Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Records join forces with Hot Topic, KIIS-FM, MySpace and musical artists from the upcoming album "Almost Alice" for a great big ultimate fan event celebrating this Spring's most anticipated 3D motion picture "ALICE IN WONDERLAND." The star-studded concert event kicks off at 5 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2010, at the Hollywood & Highland Center's Central Courtyard. Featuring five musical acts, a visit from director Tim Burton to introduce select members of the "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" cast, plus opportunities to win prizes,including a sneak peek of actual film footage, the ultimate fan event will be streamed live on MySpace at www.myspace.com/wonderland.

An Entertainment Extravaganza

The event's featured artists will do a short set, including their song from "Almost Alice." Artists/songs include 3OH!3 ("Follow Me Down"), Metro Station ("Where's My Angel"), Family Force 5 ("Topsy Turvy"), Kerli ("Tea Party"), and Never Shout Never ("Sea What We Seas").

Available March 2, 2010, "Almost Alice" is a 16-song compilation featuring the film's end credit track "Alice," written and performed by Avril Lavigne, plus songs from artists including All American Rejects, The Cure's Robert Smith, Franz Ferdinand and Shinedown. Hot Topic's exclusive expanded version includes three bonus tracks. The album is a companion to the film's soundtrack, which features the score by composer Danny Elfman.

Hot Topic's Hollywood locale (3rd level of Hollywood & Highland Center) has been transformed to a mad version of Wonderland even the Hatter would enjoy. Hot Topic hosts the event and features exclusive "ALICE IN WONDERLAND"-themed products now available at Hot Topic stores nationwide and online. Beginning Monday, February 8, the first 250 customers who purchase any 3OH!3 t-shirt and preorder the "Almost Alice" CD will receive a wristband that will grant access to a special meet-and-greet with the band 3OH!3, entry into the concert's preferred viewing pit and admission into the special 3D sneak peek of footage from the film at the El Capitan Theatre after the concert event.

KIIS-FM, 104.3 MyFM and 98.7 FM will give away VIP preferred viewing pit wristbands to listeners between now and event day. Additional VIP tickets will be given away via MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. VIP attendees will be treated to a special 3D sneak peek of footage from the film at Hollywood's El Capitan Theatre immediately following the event.

Fans are encouraged to dress up in costumes inspired by characters from "ALICE IN WONDERLAND." Costumes will be judged on site by Academy Award(R)-winner Colleen Atwood, costume designer for the film. Winners will be invited to attend the special sneak peek at the El Capitan.

KIIS-FM's Manny on the Streets will be the on-stage host for the event. Quddus from MySpace and theQside.com, Roslynn Cobarrubias from MySpace Music and Philip DeFranco from YouTube will be on hand as backstage hosts, interviewing key players along the way.

MySpace and Facebook will host the exclusive live streams of the event at www.myspace.com/wonderland and www.facebook.com/aliceinwonderland, powered by Ustream. Viewers around the world can experience the event first-hand, see exclusive backstage interviews with talent and interact by posting comments and questions to the page. Become a Fan on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/aliceinwonderland

SOURCE: Walt Disney Pictures


Again, the extravaganza will take place on Friday, February 19th, from 5:00 - 7:00 PM at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Hollywood, CA. Click here for the Facebook event page.

Interview with Mia Wasikowska

Alice in Wonderland will be released in cinemas in less than a month, so there will be plenty more to hear about the film until then. For now, the Los Angeles Times is doing extensive coverage on the film. Here's the LA Times' Geoff Boucher's interview with the star of the movie, 20 year old Mia Wasikowska.

BEWARE OF POTENTIAL SPOILERS!!:


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.

Elfman on "Wonderland"

Alice in Wonderland is nearly done, with one of its last additions being that classic Burton trademark: a Danny Elfman score. Elfman did his final touches just this past Sunday. Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times interviewed the acclaimed composer as part of their Hero Complex series.

Watch out for potential SPOILERS!!

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.

PHOTO: Danny Elfman at his home in Hancock Park in 2003. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times).

Burton, Wasikowska, Atwood, and Schaub on "Wonderland"

Rotten Tomatoes spoke with Tim Burton, Mia Wasikowska, costume designer Colleen Atwood, and animation supervisor David Schaub to learn more about the making of Alice in Wonderland.

Why did Burton choose to make Alice? Because he was underwhelmed with other cinematic adaptations that he had seen. "All the other versions of Alice I've seen were lacking a narrative dynamic," he tells RT. "They were just a series of absurdist tales with one weird character after another and not too much of a context. So you watch it thinking, 'Oh, that's weird,' and 'Yeah, that's strange,' without ever paying attention to the story plot points."

How is Burton's Alice going to avoid those pitfalls? "We tried to give all of the characters a bit more of a foundation and a more simple, grounded story to work off all the weird stuff," he explains. "I mean, they're obviously all mad. But we have tried to give each of them a particular madness and a bit more depth."



Burton also explained how much of the effects were done in a trial and error process. One experiment that didn't make the cut was the motion capture technology. "We suited the Tweedles (Matt Lucas) and the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover, pictured) for motion capture," explains animation supervisor David Schaub. "The Knave is eight feet tall so we thought that motion capture would be the best method. But Crispin had to be on stilts for eye line purposes, so all of the captured images looked like a guy on stilts. It was clunky." Was it frustrating to have to throw away the footage? "It's Tim's choice," shrugs Schaub. "He knows what's out there and he makes choices based on the films he sees and the techniques used."

"We discussed what we like and don't like about motion capture," admits Burton. "Personally, I think it looks weird."


Other technological tricks were more successful, but still challenging. "We basically have three live-action characters," explains David Schaub. "They are Alice (Mia Wasikowska), The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and The White Queen (Anne Hathaway). The Tweedles and the Knave of Hearts are real heads blended onto animated bodies. That creates a special look that you won't have seen before. It's very cool. Meanwhile, Helena Bonham Carter's character (The Red Queen) is an amalgamation of all kinds of different techniques, which we then distorted." One of the most difficult characters to create was The Cheshire Cat. "That was hard because he actually floats," says Schaub. "So we had to think, if a cat could float, how would a cat float? Then he's got this huge grin the whole time, which causes problems because he's got to have emotions. But how do you make him anything other than happy when he's got this permanent smile? It was intense."

Wonderland itself is almost entirely CGI. "There is one significant prop where Alice steps into Wonderland and goes down some stairs," says Schaub. "That was an amazing piece of architecture. But everything else is a CG environment."

The end result may look incredible, but it was hardly thrilling for Mia Wasikowska. "It was three months of green screen," she sighs. "So I had to try and keep the energy up and remember that there will be an animated character in front of me. But it's hard when you're acting opposite nothing but sticky tape and tennis balls."


While the Red Queen was a technical amalgamation, the Mad Hatter was a creative mix. "It's funny," laughs costume designer Colleen Atwood. "Tim, Johnny and I had all made sketches of what we thought the Mad Hatter should look like. Then, when we sat down to discuss it, we realised they were all really similar!" One intriguing aspect of the Mad Hatter's costume is that it changes colour according to his mood. "It's like a mood ring," explains Atwood. "I made his suits in different colours, with layers of other colours, and then they enhanced it with CGI. It's going to look really fun."


Atwood had great enthusiasm for Wasikowska, as well. "She's just an amazing young woman," Atwood gushes to RT. "Her head is not up in the clouds and she's a really hard worker with a great sense of humour -- something you need on a film as crazy as this. She's definitely channeling Cate Blanchett in the sense that both actresses are extremely talented but very grounded. Plus they're both Australian."

Tim Burton agrees: "Mia has an old soul, but there are elements of her that feel very young and naïve," he explains. "She's perfect to play Alice at this stage of her life because she is at a crossroads, and the film's journey is her finding out who she is and what she wants. Although this is probably the weirdest, most abstract movie that she will ever be in. I mean, it's weird even for me."

Is Wasikowska feeling the pressure? "A little bit," she nervously laughed. "I'm excited to see the finished product but, of course, there is a certain amount of anxiety that comes with it. Having said that, I have such faith in Tim and everybody on this film, so I'm not really worried."

Third Times Online Sneak Peek of "Alice in Wonderland"

The third and final exclusive sneak peek of Alice in Wonderland has made its debut on Times Online.

Click here for the video. This short clip includes words from Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Mia Wasikowska.

Some of the images featured in the slideshow. (Captions from the website, which contains SPOILERS.):


Bandersnatch illustration by Bobby Chiu.




Bayard illustration by Bobby Chiu.


Baynard the Bloodhound is voiced by Timothy Spall.


The Tweedles sketch by Tim Burton.


"I imagine them as naughty Victorian children, with their hand in the honey jar," says Matt Lucas, the British comedian and actor who plays them both. "And so I have made them quite child-like, which does come naturally to me, because I’m a big kid anyway."


Dodo illustration by Michael Kutsche.


Michael Gough lends his voice for the Dodo.


All images from Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Feb. 28: "Alice" at Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

Want to see Alice in Wonderland before March 5th? Those in Ireland can see the film in 3D on February 28th, as part of the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The film will be shown at the Savoy at 17 Upper O'Connell Street Dublin 1.

Click here to book tickets for this special JDIFF presentation!

Wasikowska on Making "Alice"

The new issue of Teen Vogue has a detailed interview with Mia Wasikowska, star of Alice in Wonderland. The article goes into depth about Wasikowska's past, work as an actress, experience making Alice, and her future projects.

Mia Wasikowska spent the first half of her life as a dancer, but at age 14, the Australian teenager began calling agents in Sydney. After he role in the HBO series In Treatment, Tim Burton came knocking, inviting the young actress, now 20 years old, to audition for his cinematic adaptation of Lewis Carroll's surreal, phantasmagorical world. Wasikowska's role as Alice will be the biggest role she's taken yet.

"Alice is such a high-profile character," she explained. "One of the things that was scary about taking on that role is the huge fan base; everybody has their own idea of who she is. So [Tim and I] discussed, very early on, just being happy with her being our Alice... making her my own."

Click here for more information on Wasikowska's past and promising future.

More High Resolution "Alice" Images

More Alice in Wonderland art, images, and information on the technology of the film in high resolution detail, courtesy of animatie.blog.nl. Click on the images below to enlarge them:

"Alice": Behind-the-Scenes Image Galleries and Video

Times Online released their second series of exclusive Alice in Wonderland behind-the-scenes material.

Click here to see a short video with footage from the movie and input from Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, producer Suzanne Todd and senior visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston.

UPDATE: The video is now on YouTube:





Also from Times Online are these images that demonstrate the evolution of a few of the many wild characters of Underland, from sketches and illustrations by Tim Burton and Michael Kutsche to their final rendered, costumed, and realized forms. (Captions in quotes are directly from the Times Online galleries. Potential spoilers have been omitted in this article. Go to the original galleries to learn more about the characters, their relationships, and the storyline of the film.):


"The first animated character Alice encounters is the White Rabbit. Here, a storyboard sketch is done as the first step in creating the scene in the film."



"The artists at Imageworks create a low-resolution version of the CG character and place it in the CG environment - low-res allows the animators speed and flexibility while working on the scene."



"Once the character animation is completed, a high-res version of White Rabbit’s performance is checked on a more detailed model called a pit render."


"The performance approved, the Rabbit gets his fur and clothing. There are complex programs designed to make hair, fur and fabric move and behave as realistically as possible."


"This scene shot shows the final product, with all of the high-resolution elements including a furry and clothed Rabbit, his computer-generated surroundings, the matte painting background, the effects of moving leaves - all lit and textured. Elements are combined by a compositor."


"Here is the White Rabbit as illustrated by Michael Kutsche."


"Knave of Hearts sketch by Tim Burton."


"Knave of Hearts illustration by Michael Kutsche."


"The final product: Ilosovic Stayne, The Knave of Hearts, in the film," played by Crispin Glover.


"Red Queen sketch by Tim Burton."



"The final product: Helena Bonham Carter is the tyrannical monarch of Underland. With her oversized head, fiery temper and propensity to scream for people’s heads to be chopped off, she rules her subjects through fear."


"The iconic shot of Alice’s first meeting with the Cheshire Cat, who’s grinning at her from his tree limb, begins with what’s similar to a storyboard sketch, using an assemblage of low-resolution character stills."


"The scene moves to animation, where the character is dropped into a low-resolution environment: the images are kept low-res to allow Imageworks’ animators to create the Cat’s performance without having a lot of data to manipulate."


"The biggest challenge is to create a realistic cat that can generate the trademark exaggerated grin. Here, the all-important hair has been added, ensuring it behaves as it should, where it should be, with the Cat now curled on his limb."


"Here, final lighting is added, along with a full-resolution environment behind the Cat, including the flora and atmosphere added for visual effect."


All images are courtesy of Disney Enterprises.

Exclusive "Wonderland" TV Spots Coming Jan. 31st

Starting January 31st, several TV networks in the US will be showing some brand-new, exclusive footage of Alice in Wonderland. The promos will air for one week, and will be about 60 seconds long each. Here's a promo for the promos:



The final spot will appear during Super Bowl XLIV on Feburary 7th, which begins at 6 PM ET. According to Disney, the spot, entitled "Tick and Tock," will include "intense imagery and a few surprises".

"We wanted to kick off our television campaign for 'Alice in Wonderland' in a big way," says David Singh, executive vice president of worldwide marketing for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. "With Tim Burton at the helm and a cast that includes Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and rising star Mia Wasikowska, the film already has a passionate following. Fans are eager to step into the incredible 3D Wonderland that Burton has created and get a glimpse at what he's done with these brilliant characters, and we're ready to give it to them."

Here is a full schedule of the appearance of the rest of the spots:


ABC

* Desperate Housewives, Jan. 31, 9/8c
* The Bachelor, Feb. 1, 8/7c

ESPN

* 2010 NFL Pro Bowl, Jan. 31, 7:20ET
* NBA Nuggets/Lakers game, Feb. 5, 10:30ET

ABC Family

* Greek, Feb. 1, 10/9c
* The Parent Trap, Feb. 6, 8/7c

"Alice in Wonderland" US and UK Premieres Announced

From Johnny Depp News:

London (UK) Premiere Wednesday 24th or Thursday 25th February (TBC) Location: Odeon Leicester Square, London (TBC) Crowds Arrival: 12:00 noon Onwards Red Carpet Arrivals: 5:30pm Guests: Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas, Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse and many many More.

Los Angeles (USA) Premiere February (TBC) Location: Pacific's El Capitan, 6838 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Crowds Arrival: 2:00pm Red Carpet Arrivals: 5:30pm to 6:30pm Guests: Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter and many many More.

Hear "Almost Alice" 3OH!3 Song

Go to 3OH!3's official MySpace, and hear their song for the Almost Alice album, "Follow Me Down":

3OH!3's MySpace

Almost Alice will be released on March 2nd.



The album cover art for Almost Alice.

"Dark Shadows" on Track for 2011

The official "Dark Shadows" newsletter had this to report:

The "Dark Shadows" feature film finally is heading toward production later this year. It will star longtime DS fan Johnny Depp as "Barnabas." Director Tim Burton has completed the extended post-production of his most recent collaboration with Johnny, Disney's live-action/animated movie adaptation of "Alice In Wonderland." Johnny is starting to film "The Tourist" with Angelina Jolie. Variety 11-6: "Depp would play an American tourist drawn into a web of intrigue by a female Interpol agent (Jolie) who is attempting to locate a criminal who was once her lover." In the meantime, the DS script is being worked on and plans are on target for an expected 2011 release.

Burton and Wasikowska on "Alice" Set

A new photograph of Tim Burton and Mia Wasikowska on the set of Alice in Wonderland has emerged.

Post-production has recently ended, and the film is finally completed. Alice in Wonderland will be released in theaters on Friday, March 5th, 2010.

New "Wonderland" Images

Courtesy of bscreview.com and Yahoo.com, some officially released Alice in Wonderland images:

Short Video Interview: Depp on Mad Hatter

Times Online has a brief, exclusive video interview with Johnny Depp. He discusses the various moods of the character and playing such an eccentric role.

UPDATE: Video now on YouTube:

Elfman's "Wonderland" Soundtrack

Danny Elfman's soundtrack for Alice in Wonderland is now available to pre-order at Amazon.com. This album will only feature the score from the film, and not the songs on the Almost Alice CD.

The original motion picture soundtrack and Almost Alice will both be available on Tuesday, March 2nd.

"Almost Alice" Album Due March 2

Disney will be releasing a soundtrack for Alice in Wonderland on March 2nd, entitled Almost Alice.

Here's the full tracklist for Almost Alice:

1. “Alice (Underground)” performed by Avril Lavigne
2. “The Poison” performed by The All-American Rejects
3. “The Technicolor Phase” performed by Owl City
4. “Her Name Is Alice” performed by Shinedown
5. “Painting Flowers” performed by All Time Low
6. “Where’s My Angel” performed by Metro Station
7. “Strange” performed by Tokio Hotel and Kerli
8. “Follow Me Down” performed by 3OH!3 featuring Neon Hitch
9. “Very Good Advice” performed by Robert Smith
10. “In Transit” performed by Mark Hoppus with Pete Wentz
11. “Welcome to Mystery” performed by Plain White T’s
12. “Tea Party” performed by Kerli
13. “The Lobster Quadrille” performed by Franz Ferdinand
14. “Running Out of Time” performed by Motion City Soundtrack
15. “Fell Down a Hole” performed by Wolfmother
16. “White Rabbit” performed by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

According to the MySpace Music blog, most of these tracks are “re-imagining songs from the Disney classic.” The album will be an "inspired-by" compilation of songs, not unlike the Nightmare Revisited album from 2008 for The Nightmare Before Christmas.

There will also be a version of the album with two additional songs, exclusively available at Hot Topic.

New High Resolution "Alice" Poster

Click the image below to get the high resolution version of this new Alice in Wonderland poster:

Avril Lavigne to Release "Alice" Song

Avril Lavigne will be releasing a song for Alice in Wonderland, aceshowbiz.com reports. The song is entitled "Alice Underground." The song will be made available in March, in time for the film's release on March 5th in cinemas.


© Bob Charlotte/PR Photos

Johnny Depp on the Mad Hatter

Disney's Movie Surfers have released a new, brief video interview with Johnny Depp, who discusses the relationship between the Mad Hatter and Alice. The one-minute-long video also includes some new footage from Alice in Wonderland:

Samples of "Alice in Wonderland" Press Kit

Zap2It has provided a few images of the whimsical Alice in Wonderland press kit.



The press kit begins as a large book, bearing the poster of the film...



...Within that book are drawings and photographs of Tim Burton and Lewis Carroll. And inside of that book is a smaller book, with illustrations of the shooting locations and sets...



...This contains an even smaller book, with photographs of the stars of the film (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter), and illustrations of the characters...



...Finally, inside of that third book, was a small key which worked as a USB. A very small note (which required a magnifying glass to be read) stated: "The USB key will take you beyond the gates of Wonderland and unveil the many secrets that await you." The USB key contained a new trailer and three new photographs from the movie.

New "Wonderland" Promo Art

This cut-out can be seen in some movie theaters today.

Click the image below for a high resolution version:

Wasikowska on "Wonderland"

Mia Wasikowska, the star of Alice in Wonderland, discussed her experiences working on the phantasmagorical film with the Los Angeles Times.

How did shooting the film feel to the 20-year-old actress? "Isolating," she said, considering that 90% of the shooting was in front of a green screen. Instead of conversing with a caterpillar or Chesire Cat, Wasikowska had to interact with a bit of sticky tape, a tennis ball, or, at best, a cardboard cutout of the said character.

"I was basically planted in this sea of green," the Australian actress said. "I really had to use my imagination."



While Alice is 7 years old in Lewis Carroll's original stories, the character is a young woman at the age of 19 in Burton's upcoming film. “She’s grown up a lot and is somewhat a different person, and she’s kind of going back to her roots and discovering herself," said Wasikowska.

The actress also talked about her co-star, Johnny Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter.

“I think he’s so brave and smart with his choices. He can play a crazy character but still give it a core humanity which I think people can identify with,” Wasikowska said.



But as insane as he may be, Wasikowska assured that Alice and the Hatter are allies (and, evidently, are much in the spirit of Tim Burton's other outsider characters). "They"re on the same side," Wasikowska said. "They have an understanding about each other. They both feel like outsiders and feel alone in their separate worlds, and have a special bond and friendship."

Depp tends to prepare for his roles by drawing his characters, and sought the wild orange hair as an allusion to the mercury poisoning (many hatter used mercury to cure felt). Depp previously said, "I think he was poisoned, very, very poisoned, and it was coming out through his hair, through his fingernails and eyes."

Wallpapers from "Wonderland"

Four new Alice in Wonderland wallpapers have appeared online, featuring the March Hare, the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, and the Chesire Cat. Click the images below for the high resolution versions:

New Caterpillar Image

A new image of the Caterpillar has made an appearance on Facebook:

UK "Alice" Trailer Contains More New Footage!

Check out the UK cut of the latest Alice in Wonderland trailer -- it contains some different footage from the new one released in the US:

"Alice in Wonderland": Trailer #2!

The second official Alice in Wonderland trailer has made its online debut!

See it in delicious high definition at Apple!

Watch Tim Burton on "The Charlie Rose Show"

In case you missed it, here is the superb interview with Tim Burton on The Charlie Rose Show, which premiered on Thursday, November 26th, 2009. This is most of the episode. It begins with the three curators from the Museum of Modern Art discussing Burton's art, then goes to the man of the hour himself. Rose describes Burton as the "perfect guest", as they enthusiastically talk about a plethora of topics including his most personal films, being a parent, children's artwork, his creative process, and much more:

An Interview with Tim Burton

An interview with Tim Burton from Wired, in which the filmmaker discusses the new generation of 3D cinema, original ideas vs. remakes, his creative process in creating characters, and anthropomorphic objects, among other topics:

Wired: How did you find a life’s worth of work to give to the MoMA?

Tim Burton: I’m not a very organized person. Luckily I had a bunch of stuff that had just been moved to England from a warehouse in America. I don’t really go through things very much, so it was interesting for me to go back through it all.

It was an interesting process. It helps ground you and gets you to remember what interested you to begin with. It’s you, but a different you. You can look at yourself objectively.

Wired: Not many directors have retrospectives of their artwork and illustrations. How did having a fine arts background influence your directorial visions?

Burton: The films I grew up loving were very visual. They were the kinds of things that get etched in your memory. To me, film is a very visual thing, so I’m very grateful for my animation background. It’s kind of everything. It’s art, it’s design, it’s film. At that time all I wanted to be was an animator, but through the backdoor you learn how to do everything else. When you make an animated film you have to act it out, design the layouts, shoot it, and edit it. It was a great overall experience.

Wired: What’s your creative process? Do you find yourself doodling and suddenly you’ve got a character for a movie?

Burton: The whole sketching and drawing process to me is the equivalent to how some people write notes. I’ve never really felt like a writer. It was always a visual thing for me. With Jack Skellington, for example, that was just a doodle I kept drawing over and over and over for no apparent reason.

Things can grow from an image that keeps coming up, like the Scissorhands image. They just come as ideas or thoughts, and sometimes they go on to something.

Edward Scissorhands came from a feeling that became a sketch of different forms over the years. It was an idea from when I was a teenager, so it had been in my mind for a long time.

Wired: A lot of your films are original ideas, but you have dabbled with remakes, such as Planet of the Apes and now Alice. Is it easier to get support from Hollywood to remake a film than to start something from scratch?

Burton: There’s a trend right now, where every TV show is remade, and there’s a certain idea of safety in certain properties. At the same time, they can be equally as dangerous. Something like Alice in Wonderland, with the opportunity to do it in 3-D and to experiment, it actually feels like a completely new property.

Wired: Is it more intimidating to take a story people are familiar with and make it your own?

Burton: The reason Alice in Wonderland isn’t as daunting as past productions is that every version I ever saw of Alice in Wonderland was of a girl walking around passively with a bunch of weird characters. It never really had any feeling or grounding to it. It felt like a new challenge to me. There isn’t a great version that I have to live up to.

Wired: Did you feel like Alice was the perfect story for you to debut a live-action movie in 3-D?

Burton: The element that intrigued me was Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. Nightmare Before Christmas was converted to 3-D, and it was really good. I was really amazed. It showed me that this was exactly the way Nightmare was meant to be seen. Now, 3-D just seems to really lend itself to the Alice story. The thing about Alice for me was not so much the literalness of the story, but the trippy nature of it and still trying to make that compelling.

Wired: How hard is it to continue working in more traditional special effects, like stop motion animation, when the rest of Hollywood is drinking the CG Kool-Aid?

Burton: I think stop motion has proven itself as a valuable art form, as has animation. A few years ago it was a dead medium, and while there’s still a lot of uncertainty, there’s enough diversity now. If people like the movie, it doesn’t matter what medium it’s in. It’s actually better now than it was a few years ago, when CG was really kicking in.

Wired: You love stop motion. What’s your fear of CG?

Burton: Take Nightmare Before Christmas, for example. I was offered to do it in drawing animation and I held out for stop motion, because that was the right medium for that project. It’s up to each project and what you’re technically trying to achieve that decides what medium should be used, whether it’s stop motion, animation, or CG.

Wired: From Pee-wee’s Big Adventure to Beetlejuice, furniture, inanimate objects tend to come to life in your films. Do you anthropomorphize objects on a daily basis?

Burton: Well, I’m lying in bed here with my coffee pot… That’s where you need free time to space out. People don’t do that enough in life. Those are the moments where a tree turns into a little character.

Wired: Are you excited about the retrospective?

Burton: It’s such a strange and surreal event to me. I haven’t quite grasped it. I might as well put my dirty laundry basket in there as well.

High-Res "Alice" Banner

Here's a nice, official, high-resolution banner composed of the three Alice in Wonderland posters which were recently released.

Colleen Atwood on Burton, "Alice": "It's Going to Be Amazing"

Renowned award-winning costume designer and frequent Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood sat down for an interview with MovieLine.com, and discussed how she met Tim Burton, how new technology has affected her method of designing costumes for Alice in Wonderland, what we can expect from Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, and much more:

You’ve worked with Johnny Depp many times now.

I have … Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow … Let’s see … Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland …

It must be a treat to design for an actor who can disappear so seamlessly inside his characters.

He really is a chameleon, and he takes on the character in the clothes. They don’t ever look like costumes on him; they look real, and that really helps my job.

Your partnership with Tim Burton — how did the two of you first come together?

I was recommended to him on Edward Scissorhands by a production designer — Bo Welch — who I’d work with prior to that. So I met Tim through him, and we clicked in our own way, and we’ve managed to have a long run together and still enjoy working together. I just went to Tim’s show at MoMA last night, and it was fantastic. Really amazing.

Do you conceive of the costumes together through sketches? I know he frequently begins on paper.

There’s something that he captures that is kind of the soul of the character on paper, and there’s often costume elements, but we’re not married to that at all. I mean, for sure on Edward Scissorhands, because there was so much involved with that, but with the Mad Hatter, with Sweeney, with those costumes, he really doesn’t give me a drawing and say, “This is what I want.” I think it’s because he knows the other people working with him are artists, so he gets very excited and enthusiastic when we show him what we have. He has a wonderful eye himself, and so he’ll a little magical touch to something.

How did the new 3-D technology he used in Alice in Wonderland affect your designs?

I did a lot of the computer animated costumes — I knew what the animated world was going to be, and I knew a bit about 3-D anyway, and so I sort of tried to make stuff that you could play with in 3-D. Stuff that pops in and out. We ended up physically making a lot of the other stuff and it would later end up being animated. It really helped Tim to see things as physical costumes first, and it gave the animators a lot of help as far as depth and texture and things like that. I think what we’re going to see now is the mixture of live and animated people and costumes in an animated world. It’s going to be a really amazing, fun thing for the audience.


I know he wanted to depart with the traditional narrative. How tied were you to the original illustrations, and what were you reference points for designing a new Alice in Wonderland?

It was really freeing, because there’s Lewis Caroll’s own drawings, of which there aren’t very many and they’re quite simple. As Alice went through various eras, there’s classic references for them. Because this is so different from what people are going to expect — Alice isn’t a ten-year-old girl, she’s a young woman — there’s a nod to the classical need for that. But once she goes into Wonderland, we took it to another place. The Hatter has a hat and the recognizable elements, but we explored the world of hat makers in London in the period. So we pulled from that for inspiration more than the previous illustrations, and Johnny used that for his character. They called hatters “mad hatters” because they used these toxic glues and dyes all the time, and they were actually quite mad, a lot of them. So it was quite cool to read about that business in that time, and that they were actually quite in demand and made a quite decent living at that period.



Now when you do something historically accurate and less fanciful than something like Alice in Wonderland, such as Public Enemies, how much research goes into it before you even sketch your first drawing?

In a story like Public Enemies, it’s about people who existed, so you go to that trough, using what few images of them existed. Actually when I do period work, I really like to read about the period as much as I like to look at pictures, because sometimes the written word is much better at conveying what their lives were really like and how much they had, and where their clothes came from. Because a lot of time, people dressed in their Sunday best to pose for a picture. They didn’t take snapshots until much later — there certainly wasn’t much of that going on in the 1930s.

For most of these guys, it was mugshots and prison entrance and exit clothes, but I had a lot of people do online research, and Michael Mann of course had been on the project for a long time and had very deep research and was quite specific. The production designer usually starts a show before I do and they usually have a depth of research. So it’s a combination of all that.


You have some TV credits as well, such as The Tick. Did you design The Tick’s costume?

Yeah. The pilot.


Is it true The Tick’s moving antennae cost $1 million to produce?

Not the ones I did. Maybe later when they did the series they spent more money, but I did the pilot. I remember the amount that costume cost, as a matter of fact, and the budget for that kind of TV pilot is usually much higher. I didn’t have the kind of R&D you get when they decide to really go for it.


What was the most expensive costume you’ve ever made?

I’d say probably the most expensive costumes I’ve ever made were the costumes in The Planet of the Apes, because of the research and development that went into them and the amount of layers. I got the cost per costume down, but because it involved so many processes, with sculpting, and bodysuits, and cool suits, and oversuits, and helmets, and footwear, and handwear, that had to work for action and look like monkeys, that was probably the most expensive per-unit costume ever. The period stuff I spend a lot of time on, I have good textile artists. They’re not cheap, but they’re not out of control expensive either, because you have to make it work.




Speaking of making it work, do you watch Project Runway?

I have watched Project Runway, but I’m not a devout watcher of it. But I think it’s a great show, what I’ve seen of it, and I think Tim Gunn is a very positive, amazing guy.


I ask because they’ll often dismiss something on the show as looking “too costumey,” and I’m wondering if you take offense to that.

No, because I think the street world that it’s in is different. People like to stir up the fashion vs. costume world, and I think what they mean by “too costumey” is that it’s too much, or not real enough for everyday wear. You couldn’t say that about John Galliano’s shows, right? I mean they’re awesome and they’re total costume. It’s just a different thing. They do like to slag off costumes a bit — not on that show, but in the fashion world. I don’t know why they feel they have to compete.


Are you ever tempted to, or maybe you do, design your own clothes?

You know, it’s strange. Like, I’ve designed my Oscar dresses and my people have made them for me, but my own clothes per se that I wear? No — but I do a lot of fitting. Like I’ll buy something and completely recut it. I’m so used to thinking that my clothes are fairly neutral, it’s other people’s clothes I like to design.


Next up you’re working on yet another Johnny Depp film — The Rum Diary. What’s the look you’re going for there?

Well, it’s real. It’s a guy that goes to Puerto Rico in 1960, who’s kind of like an average guy. He shows up with very few clothes. There’s contrasts in the story, between the haves and the have-nots, the Union Carbides vs. the locals, so I pushed that side of the contrast a bit. But it’s very research-oriented and real clothes a lot.

The Making of Tim Burton's MoMA Spot

From MoMA's Inside/Out blog, written by Julia Hoffman:



To help promote MoMA’s Tim Burton retrospective, we asked Burton himself to animate the MoMA logo for a thirty-second video that would be used to promote the exhibition on television, at the Museum, and online. Tim quickly came up with a concept utilizing stop-motion animation, and he asked Allison Abbate, his producer on Corpse Bride (2005) and the upcoming full-length version of Frankenweenie, if she could help pull things together.


Tim Burton's original robot design

Abbate turned to Mackinnon & Saunders, a U.K. firm that designs and builds animation puppets, models, and maquettes and produces TV commercials and entertainment programs for children’s TV, because they had worked on past Burton projects, including Corpse Bride. Company heads Ian Mackinnon and Peter Saunders pick up the story: “For the promo, Tim had designed a cute and quirky little robot character whose job was to inflate four typically Burton-esque balloons spelling out the MoMA logo. The whole premise sounded very simple, until we found out the timescale. We had just three weeks to create the character, the balloons, animate them, and get the footage out to Los Angeles for post production.”


The robot model and storyboards

Mackinnon continues, “Tim was very keen for the whole piece to be rendered in stop motion. For the robot character this wasn’t so much of a problem, Joe Holman, one of our lead sculptor/designers, broke all records to get the character fully sculpted and broken down into his constituent elements, head, body, arms, legs ready for moulding.”


Sculptor/designer Jo Holman renders the Robot in modeling clay

At the same time the problems of creating the illusion of four balloons being inflated in stop motion was being addressed. “The first thing we did was buy some large foil balloons and blow them up just to see what dynamics we were dealing with. We considered creating actual rubber balloons and inflating them with helium and shooting them time lapse but in such a short time if we hadn’t got it right the first time we would miss the deadline,” says Mackinnon. The team also considered replacement animation, a technique whereby each stage of a balloon’s inflation would be rendered as a separate model. “Again time was against us and there was no way we could produce the literally dozens of stages we’d need in time.” adds Saunders, “For all these reasons we decided to go with CG for the balloons and called our friends at Flix Facilities to create a test shot of the 3-D balloons for us.”



Lead CG artist Simon Partington took up the challenge. Within a day he had a beautiful bobbing balloon for us to see. “It was gorgeous,” says Mackinnon. “A bit too gorgeous. It didn’t have that quirky stop-motion feel that Tim was looking for so we asked Simon to try again.” Sculptor/designer Noel Baker quickly produced plastercine sculpts of the balloons and painted them to match Burton’s designs. These were then photographed and shipped over to the Flix team. “We reproduced the shape of Noel’s fantastic sculpts as closely as possible in CG.” explains Partington, “We then took Tim’s actual drawings and textured them onto the balloons before adding some of the same imperfections such as fingerprint detail that Noel had deliberately left on his sculpt. This all helped to recreate the sense of realism that stop motion provides.”


John Whittington maps the Burton design onto the 'M' balloon

Over the course of two days Partington and his team nailed down a technique that not only gave the light, fluffy feel of big rubber balloons but also had the slightly staccato feel of stop motion. The tests were rushed over to Burton, who was deep into post-production on Alice in Wonderland. “There was a huge sigh of relief when Tim gave the thumbs up. In all honesty I don’t know how we’d have got this done in time without the Flix team’s work,” MacKinnon smiles.


The Flix CGI team: Simon Partington, Neil Sanderson, John Whittington, and Mike Whipp

Meanwhile, head puppetmakers Caroline Wallace and Richard Pickersgill completed mold-making and cast out body parts for the robot character in fiberglass, rubber, and silicone, while at the same time constructing the intricate metal skeleton, which fits inside the puppet and enables it to hold any pose during the animation process.


Richard Pickersgill adding the finishing touches to the robot

“Typically a puppet character can take anywhere between twelve to eighteen weeks to produce,” says Pickersgill, “But Tim’s design lent itself to a very economical build and we put the puppet together in just ten days, probably something of a record!”

Pickersgill completed the final paint job a mere twenty-four hours before photography was due to begin. “As he was a bit of a beat-up looking little fellow, I decided to add streaks of rust around joints and arms. We sent pictures off to Tim and the only change he made was to remove the rust—so there was an eleventh hour (literally!) repaint.” Pickersgill chuckles, “I think the paint was possibly still tacky when we put him on the set!”


An arm is released from the mold

With the delivery deadline only four days away, lighting cameraman Martin Kelly and animator Chris Tichborne took over. “Our set was very simple,” says Kelly, “Tim wanted the robot and the balloon against a flat grey background. It was great because it further emulated the look of his original pen-and-ink drawings on a plain sheet of paper. We had three days to shoot the whole piece and my first take had to be right. I’d spent a day the previous week videoing myself performing the robot part. You feel a bit silly but Neil Sutcliffe, who edited the footage into his animatic, was very kind. He didn’t laugh too much!” Even for such a short piece, Tichborne tried to cram in as much in as he could. “Richard and Caroline had included a hinge top to the robot’s head which bobs open and closed as he walks. I also had in my mind Charlie Chaplin when the robot walked—not directly copying him but more just how he would create an idiosyncratic walk.”


DOP Martin Kelly slates a shot

CG lead Simon Partington was on set the whole time doing test composites of the balloons and the animation, just to make sure everything was lining up in terms of lighting and the timing of the dynamics. “The CG and stop-motion animation had to be delivered simultaneously; there would be no time to fix things later so we were literally doing the CG renders and the animation at the same time. Seeing it come together shot by shot was fantastic!”

Although the shoot took three long days over a weekend, the team’s experience and preparation paid off and the shoot went off without a hitch. The precious footage was beamed off via a high-speed data link for Tim Burton to oversee the final post-production in Los Angeles.


Chris Tichborne helps the robot pump it up

“Tim and the folks at MoMA seemed very pleased with the results,” says Ian Mackinnon, “It was a great little project to have been involved with and we hope the audiences at MoMA like it too!”


Final robot on set

Get Your Copy of "The Art of Tim Burton"!

You can now pre-order your very own copy of the lavish, comprehensive book, The Art of Tim Burton.



For those of you who may be wondering about the differences between the Standard and Deluxe editions of the books, here are the details:

The Standard edition is $69.99. The Deluxe edition is $299.99, because it includes a hand signed inside cover, a numbered and individually signed lithograph - ready for framing, not folded, and a cloth slipcase. Other than that, the Standard and Deluxe editions are identical: both contain over 1000 illustrations and 430 pages plus foldouts, and commentaries from numerous friends and collaborators of Tim Burton. Each versions usually ship in 2 to 4 weeks.



If you happen to be in New York City, you can pick up your own copy in person at the Museum of Modern Art's book store. Otherwise, you can pre-order your copy from Steeles Publishing if you're in the United States, or from Forbidden Planet if you're in the UK or Europe.

Here are some more preview images from The Art of Tim Burton:



“Alien Fighting Men,” 1981-1983

Pen and ink, colored pencil



“The Red Queen,” 2008

Pen and ink, colored pencil



“Tim With Chinese Security,” 2006

Pen and ink, watercolor

Burton created this illustration while searching for shooting locations in China for Ripley's Believe It or Not. Burton is no longer attached to the project.



“Well Endowed,” 1980-1990

Water color, pencil



“Battle Spread,” 1980-1989

Pen and ink, watercolor


A mere fragment of the expansive fold-out spread featured in the book.

Helena Bonham Carter says: "Tim's 5-year-old son [Billy Ray Burton] and he both love to draw monsters. Sometimes it's difficult to tell who drew what. And I mean that as a compliment to both."

3rd "Alice" Poster

The third and final Alice in Wonderland poster in this series has made its debut.

2nd Official "Alice" Poster Revealed

But the Mad Hatter needs 9,000 "Likes" to show the third and final official high resolution Alice in Wonderland poster in this series. Log on to Facebook and click away!

"Barbie" in Wonderland?

Mattel presents their collectible tie-in with the major motion picture: Barbie dolls inspired by the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film.

Amazon has two dolls listed: Alice ($45.00) and the Mad Hatter ($49.99). These items will be released on March 1st, 2010. No images are available yet.

New "Alice" Poster

Lewis Carroll probably didn't anticipate Facebook, but the Mad Hatter needs 7,500 "Likes" from his 'disloyal subjects' in order to reveal two more high resolution posters. Click away, fans!

Rickman's Caterpillar Revealed!

All of the principal characters from Alice in Wonderland -- including the Caterpillar voiced by Alan Rickman -- are displayed in this lovely new article. Johnny Depp and Linda Woolverton (who wrote the screenplay) also provide a few enthusiastic words at the bottom of the pages:



EDIT: /Film has some details on the origin of this scan.

All Time Low to Record Song for "Alice"

The band All Time Low are about to record a song for Alice in Wonderland, according to one interview:

They will have a song on the soundtrack to the upcoming Tim Burton movie Alice. They are about to go in the studio to record it. I still have to transcribe my interview but I think its called Painted Flowers. I will let you guys know for sure later today when I go back over the recording.

More information to come in the near future!

MoMA Art Gala with Depp and Bonham Carter

IndieWire reports that New York’s Museum of Modern Art will host a gala dinner November 17th in honor of film director Tim Burton, with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter serving as "co-chairs" of the event along with Disney's Robert Iger, Willow Bay and David & Julia Koch. The evening will highlight Burton's 27-year-long directorial career, including his next feature, Alice in Wonderland. The benefit will support the museum's ability to continue to acquire work for MoMA’s cinema collection.

Producer Abbate Tells Few "Frankenweenie" Secrets

Animation veteran Allison Abbate gave a few bits of information on the stop-motion adaptation of Frankenweenie, which she is producing.

Abbate told HitFix.com that production will commence in early 2010, likely in the spring. The production time frame is "two years", said the producer, and will hopefully be released around or before Halloween 2011.

Previous reports stated that the film would be shot in stereoscopic 3D. But Abbate now says that that idea is actually still up in the air. Executive producer and Disney veteran Don Hahn and others have stated that the film will also be shot in black and white, but Abbate was more hesitant. "Maybe," she said. "That's one of the ideas that is being put up. I think it would be really cool." It might be a hard sell for a Disney animated film. But neither the 3D nor black and white possibilities have been entirely ruled out yet.


A still from the live-action short film Frankenweenie from 1984.

Abbate remained secretive, noting that Tim Burton is working on several films. "He's got to get through 'Alice [in Wonderland' first]," she said, and Burton will also be directing a cinematic version of Dark Shadows.

But the producer did confirm that the film will be entirely stop-motion animated. (Although a few CG or traditional cel animated elements as seen in Corpse Bride are possible, we're guessing.)

Abbate is also a producer on the stop-motion The Fantastic Mr. Fox, directed by Wes Anderson and based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name, as well as Brad Bird's The Iron Giant and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride in the past. She was also an artistic coordinator on The Nightmare Before Christmas, her first assignment on a Tim Burton film.

Frankenweenie will be shot at Three Mills Studio in London, CinemaBlend.com reports, just like The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Anderson's stop-motion film was also made on a similar two-year time frame.

Hathaway Talks Lewis Carroll, "Wonderland"

Anne Hathaway talks about her role in Alice in Wonderland and her fascination with Lewis Carroll's work.

Sheen's "Inner Rabbit"

Michael Sheen, who plays the role of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, recently had an interview with Collider, in which he discussed his upcoming projects. Here's the segment on Alice:

How do you find your inner white rabbit?

Michael Sheen: Everyone has an inner white fluffy animal. It’s such an iconic character that I didn’t feel like I should break the mold too much. I sort of just went with it. It’s a great character and a great story. “Alice in Wonderland” and “Peter Pan”were the first stories growing up that had a huge impact on me and have stayed with me ever since. So to be part of Tim Burton’s version is just a dream come true.

Since those lines are so classic, did you approach it like you would a “Hamlet”?

Michael Sheen: As a sort of cultural iconography, you know you are sort of treading that path. But Tim’s version of the story is not the original version. It’s everything you’d want in an “Alice in Wonderland” but it’s slightly off kilter as Tim Burton is one to do. It’s not like I was doing the same thing as has been done before.

Tim Burton's Fashion Shoot

In recognition of his retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, Tim Burton has designed some new looks for Harper's Bazaar Halloween photoshoot. The images include a few references to some of Burton's films and art (and Tim faces his fears wearing the body of a cartoon clown. He's also dressed as Sandy Claws). Photographs by Tim Walker:

It's Alive! "Frankenweenie" Rises from the Dead!

Tim Burton's stop-motion animated, feature-length adaptation of his 1984 live-action short Frankenweenie is coming! And executive producer Don Hahn has provided some details at Disney's D23 Expo to SciFi Wire:

1. It will be in black and white. An animated movie in black and white? Was this not a hard sell? "It was and it wasn't," Hahn said. "I think now, with Tim working at the top of his craft, the top of his game, on movies like Alice in Wonderland, I think Dick Cook really felt like if you're going to take a risk on anybody, why can't it be Tim Burton? A Tim Burton movie in black and white based on Frankenstein, how cool is that? Dick was very supportive of it." [Dick Cook was the chairman of the Walt Disney Co. until a few days ago. It is unclear whether his abrupt departure from the company will affect the film.]


Don Hahn has been in the animation industry for a while.


2. The new script will include more Frankenstein and more of the dog. And the screenplay is finished, Hahn confirmed at the press conference. "It's Frankenstein mixed with a boy-and-his-dog story, very much like the original one," Hahn said in an exclusive interview after the conference. "What's great is Tim grew up in Southern California, in Burbank, and the movie itself kind of takes that California suburban look at a monster movie story. I think that's what we're trying to do."


3. The Frankenstein family tree is growing. Bigger movie means more characters. "There are a lot of great new characters in it, really great new characters," Hahn said in the exclusive interview. But who will be among the cast? "It's the ensemble. It's the Tim Burton ensemble." Many of the actors from Burton's 1984 short film are still alive, such as Shelley Duvall, but which collaborators of Burton's may be on board? "The neat thing about Tim is he can pretty much call up anybody he needs and they'll be happy to work with him," Hahn said.




4. Now Tim Burton can do what he wants. Disney wasn't very happy with the original Frankenweenie, deeming it too scary for children. But now, with Burton's bankability, Disney is letting the creative filmmaker unleashed (relatively speaking). "Unlike Tim's recent stop-motion movies, he's designing the characters himself," Hahn said in this exclusive interview. "So you really get kind of the hand of the artist in it and get to see Tim's work itself. It's Tim Burton at his best. I think that's why he leapt at it, because when he started out making movies, it was his first choice for a live-action movie. I think he felt like, 'Gee, I wish I could've made a feature back then.' So now to come back and revisit the material is pretty fun for him, I think." Indeed, Burton has been wanting to make a feature version of Frankenweenie for 25 years -- a quarter of a century.


5. It has begun. And it's set for a 2011 release. "I'm not sure it's a 90-minute film," Hahn said. Burton and his team have already built maquettes. "We're underway on it, and I think the most important thing is it has to be a good movie," Hahn said. "So if it's not ready for 2011, then we'll let it drift into the next year, but we're up and running already." Like Corpse Bride before it, Frankenweenie is entering production in London. "The primary reason to go there is Tim lives there, and there's a great group of talent over there also that is really into stop-motion animation," Hahn said. (So a 2012 release date is not unrealistic.)


More exciting news to come in the future! Stay tuned!

Burton Makes Special Appearance

Tim Burton made a special appearance at Disney's D23 Expo on September 11th, promoting Alice in Wonderland. See more pictures here. He briefly mentioned Alice in Wonderland and gave a bit of official news on Frankenweenie...


Tim Burton and Dick Cook, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios

When Burton was asked why he wanted to make an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice, Burton replied, right in front of Disney big cheese Cook, "I never saw one... I know you already made one... that did justice to the material."


Tim Burton and fellow director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Christmas Carol)

Burton confirmed that a stop-motion, feature-length adaptation of his 1984 short film was in the making, and is currently set to be released in 2012.

Burton on His Films and Art

The Wrap's Eric Kohn recently interviewed Tim Burton. The director discussed a myriad of topics, including his greatly anticipated Alice in Wonderland and feature-length Frankenweenie, the forthcoming exhibition of his artwork at the Museum of Modern Art, issues with the studio system, and his past classics:

The trailer for Alice in Wonderland leaked online a day early. How did you feel about that?
I didn't like that. Somebody f---ed that one up. It just shows you how easy … it's like, "Oh, sorry, I just pushed that nuke button." That's the problem. All this stuff is so available. I still come from the olden days where you like to see a movie and be surprised. Then you want to know something about it -- as opposed to getting everything front-loaded. A movie just loses its whole mystique.

The art of the trailer has become an entirely separate creative process.
Well, yeah. I've always had my theories, and my theories are always different from the marketing people.

At any rate, the trailer indicates an appropriately vibrant take on the story. Is this a palate-cleanser after the grimness of Sweeney Todd?
Yeah, it's a different palate. Also, the Alice imagery has been around. For me, it wasn't so much the books. I was aware of it from other aspects of popular culture, whether it was in music or other images. It was just about trying to tell it in a way so it's not a series of weird events, like in the book.

Are you staying away from the acid subtext?
No, no, not so much that. I'm just trying to keep away from the structure that the other [interpretations] suffer from, the episodic stuff. A passive little girl wandering around thinking everything is weird.

It's weird talking about Alice when I have so much left to do on it. It's a bit creepy.

Audiences tend to bring a certain baggage to the theater when the movie involves a familiar brand, which many of your movies do.
They're harder to do for that reason. Everybody looks at the white rabbit or the Cheshire Cat or the Mad Hatter and has an idea of what they should be. With known icons, you're always going to piss off somebody.

Like with Watchmen?
That's the thing: You never know what you're going to get. With something like Watchmen, it's known on one level. It's like a great novel. You have to leave something out, somebody's favorite part. Somebody will think the essence has been sucked out of it. That's just the nature of tackling something known.

Sweeney Todd was a quintessential example of your darker side. Why didn't it do better business?
I didn't know what kind of response it would get. It seemed to do OK. I don't really know. I never know. Every movie I've ever done, I never could predict a response.

But if anyone could turn such a morose story into a massive commercial property, you're the guy.
Yeah, but if you look at the “Harry Potter” movies, they've gotten darker. For 20 years, I’ve had to fight against the whole "dark" issue. Now it's the "norm." I've tried to keep my stuff in there.

Do you feel like studios try to dumb down your ideas?
That's always the case, especially when you're dealing with a bigger budget. That's fair enough from the studios’ point of view. It's a big investment. I don't try to pay too much attention to that. It's a bit abstract anyway.

You'll have a huge exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. Does seeing your entire career surveyed make it seem as though you've achieved your creative potential?
I hope not. We'll see. Am I going to go back and remake Pee-Wee's Big Adventure? I don't think so. I feel like I've been pretty pure about that. There's been a lot of pressure to do, like, a sequel to Nightmare Before Christmas. I'm just not going to do it.

But you've talked about turning your early short film Frankenweenie into a feature.
I might do a low-budget, stop-motion movie. Something I couldn't do in the short. It would be nice to capture the spirit of my original drawings.

Like Corpse Bride?
No, less than that. I'd do it in black and white.

What about all those Broadway musical rumors?
Yeah, I got approached to do a Broadway version of Batman. I couldn't quite bring myself to do that, either.


So, how did you find the time to help out as a producer on 9?
This was a few years ago. I got involved after I saw the short film [which was nominated for an Oscar in 2005]. I felt close to his design sensibility. It's different from mine, but I related to the characters and the world. Since I've been through the experience of making animated films, I just felt like I could help him keep all the outside evils away.


Do you still watch a lot of animated shorts?
When I was first in animation, it was like a dying art form. But if you're an animator, there are more opportunities now than ever. Also, it’s using all the media.

A few years ago, they declared cel animation dead again, but now I'm hearing about some cel-animated films. I think that whole thing, "Oh, now we're only going to do computers, or we're only going to do this or that"... those barriers have been broken through.

D23 Reveals More of "Wonderland"

Day One at Disney's D23 Expo has already revealed numerous props, stand-ins, and promos from Alice in Wonderland. Images courtesy of LatinoReview.com and ComingSoon.net:

Disney Previews "Wonderland" Fashion Line

Disney Consumer Products (DCP) has shown a preview of its high-end fashion line based upon the forthcoming Alice in Wonderland movie and designed by Tom Binns. (See a photo gallery of the preview here.)

Disney has said that Binns, a jewelry designer and a Council of Fashion Designers of America winner, will be the first of several fashion designers to add their aesthetic twist to the Wonderland-themed fashion lineup.

See a runway preview, which could best be described as "curioser and curioser":



You can see more videos at the Disney Lifestyle YouTube channel.

National Jeweler Network provides more information:

"The "Tom Binns for Walt Disney Signature" line will offer a limited-edition collection of six jewelry pieces designed in Binns' over-the-top runway style. The collection will be available through luxury retailers and fine boutiques, with pieces ranging in price from $1,000 to $3,000.

"Meanwhile, "Tom Binns for Disney Couture" will offer 35 pieces featuring Binns' unique style in collaboration with Lucas Designer International. Retail prices will range from $50 to $250, with pieces incorporating photo inlay with lace accents and Swarovski crystal details. The collection will be available at department stores and specialty boutiques."



The six jewelry pieces will be based upon several characters from the film, including the Mad Hatter, Red Queen, White Rabbit, and others.

"This timeless story of Lewis Caroll married with the wonderful world of Disney and Tim Burton's interpretation offers so much philosophical fantasy and peculiar surreal imagination," Binns said of the collaboration in a media release. "It opens up a labyrinth of doors for my particular way of seeing the world, allowing me to express my fashion experience with my interest in art and cinema. Alice is the perfect story to release that creativity, and I cannot imagine a better story to cultivate my relationship with Disney."

"Disney fashion continues to be at the forefront of trends," Pam Lifford, DCP executive vice president, global fashion and home, said. "Drawing inspiration from such creative works of art as Alice in Wonderland and collaborating with top designers like Tom Binns keeps Disney and our characters relevant with tastemakers and serves up an aspirational halo effect with consumers and Disney fans of all ages."



The marketing lineup to promote the film is not limited to fashion. Many other interpretive collections based on Alice in Wonderland will be released, including character-themed toys, home decor, jewelery, hair and beauty products, and stationary.

The fashion line's retail release and much more will coincide with the theatrical debut of Alice in Wonderland in early March 2010.

You can learn more about DCP here.

Q&A with Tim Burton

Metromix covers a lot in their Q&A with filmmaker Tim Burton. In the interview, Burton talks about the various films that he's working on (and even mentions the status of the stop-motion adaptation of Frankenweenie), his thoughts on the Oscars, the current state of animation in the film industry, and much more:


You came aboard 9 as producer after Shane Acker had made his short film. How'd that process work out?
I liked his short film, and he had a certain sensibility that I felt close to. Because I had gone through the process and made animated films…I always know what I wished I'd had, which was somebody to bounce things off of: first cut, the first draft of the script, some design notes.

What drew you to the story?
I liked the short film. It just seemed like a piece of a larger picture. It just needed to be fleshed out. The thing about a short is, you can keep the kind of mystery and the kind of personal quality to it. And I think the key was to keep that feeling, but on a bigger scale. You see a lot of personal films, but you don't see a lot of personal animated films.

Well, the number of Oscar nominees for Best Picture has now been bumped up to 10…
10?!

10!
Wonder why they did that? I had heard talk of it but didn't know they actually did it. Wow.

With more nominees this year, people are predicting that a film like Up could land a spot as the first computer-animated Best Picture nominee.
Animated films…they're films! I think it's good that now, most people are not looking at them as [just] animated. They're looking at them as films, like the Pixar people. You can categorize [animation], but it shouldn't be limited by that.

But the Best Animated Film category is still there. Do you think that ghettoizes these movies?
Maybe it does. But at the same time, most people recognize—certainly the studios recognize—the economic potential of animated films. Family films, animated films—[they're] much more of a sure thing than any type of film at the moment.

What's your favorite animated film?
[Long pause] I'd have to pick something that had a lot of impact, which was Jason and the Argonauts [by] Ray Harryhausen. That really had an impact on me. The stop-motion animation and the kind of reality and scale of it at the time when I saw it was really amazing.

Would you ever want to remake that film? They're remaking Clash of the Titans.
[Chuckles] I know. Nah, I think it was good.

How are things coming along with Dark Shadows?
I haven't really started that at all. I still have to finish Alice. So that's a big job ahead of me. It's way too early. [Laughs] Probably in a year's time.

Any ideas that you've already been thinking up for it?
Well, just to try to capture the tone. It was a strange show, it has a strange vibe to it. And that's, I think, key to it.

Alice has been all over the place, with photos and trailers and you guys at Comic-Con.
Usually I don't talk about something before it's done. So it's been an odd situation because I [still] have so much work to do. I'm not scared of [all the special effects], per se, but I'm a bit daunted by the time and the unknown quality of it. But that makes it exciting as well.

What about Frankenweenie?
Still early. Like I said, the focus I have is Alice. It's hard to think of anything else that requires a large amount of work.

But that's on the table.
Oh yeah, afterward, yeah. Exactly. Slowly get started.

I saw the latest "Harry Potter" last night, which stars your partner, Helena Bonham Carter. She makes a pretty mean baddie.
[Jokes] Yeah, she's a good witch. She had a lot of practice. She's good at that.

Does she ever come to you for tips on how to channel all that darkness?
No, she keeps it all personal. She keeps it all for her own uses, yeah. Witchcraft uses. [Laughs]

New York's Museum of Modern Art is doing an exhibit on you later this year. That was a little unexpected.
I feel like it's a weird dream—I'm not sure that it's real. But it's very exciting. That's probably more scary than a film, in a certain way. It feels a bit more exposing. I'm trying not to think too much about it. I'm trying to remove myself a bit from it—a bit of an out-of-body experience.

Your films have such a consistent, dark vision. Do you ever wake up wanting to do something crazy like a romantic comedy?
[Chuckles] No. Well, I thought Sweeney Todd was a romantic comedy in my mind. So, I think I've already done it. [Laughs] But not the way you're thinking, because that would be scary. But some of those are so scary, they're like horror movies anyway. They don't need my help.

Tim Burton Answers Your Questions

Remember when MTV News said they wanted the fans to submit questions for Tim Burton to answer in an exclusive video interview? Well, the video is finally online.

Burton talks about a huge variety of topics in the five clips below, including his "bromance" with Johnny Depp, his opinions on computer generated animation and stop-motion, and his upcoming movies Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows, among other topics.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

An except, while discussing his abstract dialogues with Johnny Depp:

"It's very nice to have someone that you can have a completely abstract conversation with and leave the room, feel like everything's fine, and then realize that if you pick it apart, you have absolutely no idea what either of you said."

Burton continued: "That's a sign of knowing somebody and connecting with somebody. I don't pretend to know [him]. If I don't know who I am — this sounds like a bad therapy session — but I don't pretend to know anybody else. That's what keeps it all cool."

Motion Capture Stunt Choreography in "Wonderland"

MovieLine.com has an interview with stunt choreographer Garrett Warren. Warren has worked on numerous new and upcoming motion capture films, including Alice in Wonderland. Click this link for the full interview, in which Warren discusses other movies including Tintin and Avatar, but you can read the Alice-related excerpts below:

I'm wondering how coordinating stunts for a live-action film differs from motion capture?

The difference is that you have to have just a little bit more imagination when you have motion capture. You have to make believe you’re in an elevator, or something is a dragon, or a house. In live action, we’d actually have the horse, or build a mock-up of a dragon, or put the actors in an elevator. We still perform an awful lot of hard action sequences, but they don’t necessarily take place at an actual location. We just put down a box, and have the person jump off of that, and that can be jumping off the roof of a building.


But why take the risk of putting someone in harm’s way if you could just recreate that in a computer?

One of the things that we've always found is that no matter how hard you try to create something in a computer, it never carries the same kind of acting, the same kind of weight or movement as if you do it in real time. Watching a person fall for real and watching an animator make a person fall are two completely different looks. Not to mention that a lot of the actors we’ve used in motion capture filming prefer to have that organic feeling. They want to be part of that action sequence, so they can give you that performance that they would have given if it was real.


Who are some of the actors who insist on doing their own stunts, and what’s your reaction when they tell you that?

You know, I've always had most lead actors and actresses say they’d like to do as many of their stunts as possible. One person in particular, Seth Green, wanted to do every stunt possible he could do on Mars Needs Moms!, and he did. He did about 90% of it.

But then you get to a movie like Alice in Wonderland, and Johnny Depp says, "I only really want to do the stunts that are necessary for me. Anything that you don’t need to see me in, I prefer to let the stunt double do it." Those are the kinds of stunts — where you'll be falling down some stairs, or falling off a chair — that while they might not seem like big stunts, they hurt your actor. And that sets you back production-wise. It’s always good to see someone who is professional who thinks ahead and realizes that it's not a big deal to see someone fall on the ground.


Garrett Warren is the winner of the Stunt Choreographer of the Year award from the 2009 Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards.

D23 to Highlight "Alice," "Nightmare"

Disney's D23 Expo is coming to Burbank, California from September 10-13. Many screenings, panels, and other Disney-related events will take place, including some new footage of Alice in Wonderland.

On Friday, September 11th, at 11:00 am, Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook will be hosting a presentation of upcoming Disney movies in the 4,000 seat Anaheim Convention Center. There will be some new exclusive footage of Alice in Wonderland at that morning event.

And at 1:00 pm that same day, there will be a 3D screening of The Nightmare Before Christmas. The short films Vincent and Frankenweenie will play prior to the feature film. The Nightmare Before Christmas will return to select cinemas in Disney Digital 3D this October.

Admission is $37 for a one-day adult ticket and $27 for children 3-12. Four-day passes are $111 for adults and $81 for children. Learn more at the official website, D23Expo.com.

Click here to read the entire four-day schedule of events at the D23 Expo.

"Alice in Wonderland" Books Coming

Two books are coming out in relation to Tim Burton's cinematic adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy: a visual companion by Mark Salisbury and a novelization of the film by T. T. Sutherland.

There is no cover art for either Alice in Wonderland books yet, but you can preorder them on Amazon.com. The novelization will be available on Feburary 2nd, 2010 and the visual companion on March 2nd. (You can also buy the two together on Amazon.)

Mark Salisbury has chronicled the life and films of Tim Burton extensively. He is the editor of the definitive Tim Burton interview book Burton on Burton, and the author of the visual companions for Burton's Planet of the Apes, Corpse Bride, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Burton on "Alice," "9," and More

Cinematical has an extensive interview with Tim Burton:

Cinematical: At Comic-Con, it was informative to watch you first discuss a film which you're directing and then one that you're just producing. In the 9 panel you said that you were there to fight battles with the studio so that Shane Acker could focus on directing the film; when you're serving in a producorial capacity is that what you do or is there a sort of creative consultation?

Tim Burton: Well, yeah. I don't know if Shane said it, but I was an animator and I know what it's like; you have to be so concentrated and have to put so much thought into every detail. I had it easy because it's like you want somebody that's not looking at those every day and has a more fresh perspective on it, which is something I appreciate because when I make something, it's extremely helpful to have people that you trust who have been through it before to look at the big-picture kind of stuff, look at a cut or look at the script or look at the characters inside. Shane's an artist, and the good thing about an artist is that they don't have that ego; he was very open to things. I felt it was quite a good collaboration with everybody, because Timur [Bekmambetov]'s made films, I've made films, and we all liked what Shane did so there was none of this, like, "well I've got to put my stamp on this or that" kind of a thing. So it was kind of creating that kind of an environment to let someone do their thing; even without all of that stuff, just making the film, that's where you want him to put all of his energy.

Cinematical: Both in the program and on stage the film was referred to as "stitchpunk." Do phrases like that mean anything to you?

Burton: No. I mean, I always liked stitching, and maybe I'm a frustrated sewer, but no. I just like the look of it and the feel of it. Personally I think it's intriguing, and I like that fact that someone has given something a name like that, but I don't do that myself.

Cinematical: Even if you're the one inventing such descriptions or names, is that limiting at all in the sense that it creates a specific association? Or does that provide sort of a shorthand that gives people an immediate entry point for what they might be seeing?

Burton: I don't know. The thing I liked about this movie was that I couldn't quite categorize it. We've all seen post-apocalyptic imagery in films – it's not like it's new territory in that sense, although at the same time I liked it because I couldn't quite categorize it. There was an emotional quality, and after myself working on Nightmare and things where you're trying to take characters that are not necessarily perceived as attractive-looking characters, but giving it an emotion, that's what I liked about what Shane was doing, so I felt connected in that way. But I like the fact that you can't really categorize it; the very Hollywood sort-of way of pitching things is kind of like, "well, it's The Terminator meets Wall-E," you know, but you immediately get that's a kind of short-hand, but I was just kind of like, oh, brother. I think we're all lucky with a group of people like Shane and Timur and Jim [Limley] and myself, we all kind of like to avoid that stuff, so there was none of that going on and it was good.

Cinematical: Yesterday at one of the panels a fan asked if you would be interested in remaking The Wizard of Oz. As much as adaptations and interpretations of properties like Alice and Wonderland and Sleepy Hollow are in your wheelhouse, do the commercial opportunities of doing material like that limit you from doing things that are more original or specific to your appetites?

Burton: Well, yeah. It's true, because there are things like Nightmare or Edward Scissorhands, things that I really [put myself into], but I've enjoyed the other things that I've done. But yeah. Also, too Hollywood, it becomes a thing where it's, okay, which TV show haven't we done yet, and I understand it because it's an easy [choice], but yeah. I'm not answering your question, but it's a bit of a danger. Yeah, it is, but that's why I like getting involved with this, and what also was nice about this which you don't get these days is sort of flying under the radar; there's something about him, something new where you don't know a whole lot about it, and it gets made, and it's a bit more of a surprise, and that was really cool with this.

Cinematical: So when you do something like Alice in Wonderland that has a cache of familiarity, does that allow you to be able to do your own projects? For example, you did Big Fish, which wasn't as commercially successful as its follow-up, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Burton: I don't think about that stuff. I mean, I'm aware of the fact that if you make a bunch of movies that don't make any money it's hard to continue to make movies. There is a certain amount of that, but I never sort of said, well, I'll do a big studio movie and then I'll do a personal movie. If you can really sort of maneuver that, because that's the problem – it's a hard way of thinking. I never want to think about making a movie to make money, because it's not an exact science. Things like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I know it's a known thing, but it's also a book that I loved as a child. So you make a personal connection to everything that you do; even Alice, there's been so many versions of it and there's never been a version that I really liked. So that's my attempt, to make a movie of Alice that's just more than a series of weird events.

Cinematical: How did the technology augment your ideas for that adaptation, both in terms of 3-D and in terms of conceiving these really amazing character designs?

Burton: Well, I'm still in the process, and that's the scary thing. I mean, usually I don't ever talk about stuff in these early days, but the jury is still out on that one. I haven't felt the sort of liberation of technology yet; it's actually a bit more sort of the opposite of the way I usually work, where you have sets and actors and you can see what you get right away. Here, it's the reverse – you've got all of these pieces of stuff and you see a finished shot very, very late in the process. So it's strange.

Cinematical: As must be the case right now with these two films, how difficult is it to juggle your producorial efforts with those that you direct?

Burton: Especially in animation it takes so long that it wouldn't do Shane, it wouldn't do anybody a service to be [controlling], because it's like watching paint dry. It's a long, long process, so again, I love it because especially when I'm thinking of something else, like when I'm on Alice thinking about it, it's actually a luxury to kind of take my mind away for a second and look at something here and have a fresh perspective on it. it kind of keeps my mind stimulated and going, so it's actually been quite good that way.

Cinematical: Has your evolution as a filmmaker been sort of concurrent with the technology you're using now? For example, Nightmare was stop-motion, and potentially 9 could have been as well, but you and Shane are using CGI. Also, Nightmare was retrofitted for 3-D and now you're using it during the production of Alice.

Burton: Each project you try to actually pick the medium for the project, and the thing I liked about 9 is Shane, his inspiration was all stop-motion and it actually has a stop-motion feel. The quality of the animation, it's got that like more naturalistic thing. Now, the reason he couldn't do it [stop-motion], which I understand, is for the budget and the kind of camera moves, the kind of action stuff that he wanted to get. He chose to do it that way, which I think he made exactly the right choice; you get the best of both worlds with that. For me and for things like Alice, it seemed like 3-D and Alice, the material and doing it that way just seemed appropriate with the project, just the mix of animation and manipulate the live-action so it's in a stranger way. But that's not something you pre-plan; you just kind of take it, you see where the technology is at that moment, is this possible, and then take it as it comes, really. Obviously technology is so rapidly changing and it goes through those spurts, doesn't it, and it's in one of those growth spurts at the moment.

Cinematical: Do you feel a sense of protectiveness coming from the world of cel animation? It seems to be used more and more rarely these days, although today at the Disney panel, they showed footage from their next film, which is being done with hand-drawn animation.

Burton: Yeah, that's great. Because I remember somebody, DreamWorks does a cel-animated movie and it doesn't make any money so they go, "we're not making any more cel-animated films." I think Disney even said that at one point. John Lasseter and the real animators know that's just a stupid concept, and Pixar has proven the fact that you just do a project, do it in the medium that fits it and do a good story, and it can be hand-drawn, hand puppets, whatever. It will connect if it's the right thing.

Cinematical: How far into production are you on Alice?

Burton: We shot all of the live-action, and now it's just a lot of animation, and a lot of compositing. That's the thing: you just see pieces of a lot of shots. But there's a lot going on (laughs).

Cinematical: For Alice, how did you arrive at the way these characters would be rendered? Because they are exaggerated but they do have a vaguely real quality.

Burton: It just came down to things in technology that I liked or didn't like. For instance, I'm not a big fan at the moment for mo-cap stuff because I just don't like it personally. A lot of people have used it very successfully, but it's personally not a thing that I like. That's why I decided to go with pure animation for some of the characters, and then for some, live-action, rather than it just being animation or live-action – to blur the lines a little bit. With some of our characters, we're just doing some manipulation with it, so it's their real performance, real faces, real heads, real bodies, everything, but just manipulate it so that it's kind of a weirder crossover into what Wonderland is. It just comes down to sort of things that you like or don't like, and I just find with animation, you're able to achieve more reality by just doing the animation than maybe doing mo-cap stuff. Although it's getting better, I know that; they're doing really good things with it. But it's just a personal choice to do something that way.

Cinematical: So would it be accurate to say you're looking for an artistic authenticity rather than realism?

Burton: No, I don't know. I'm not sure. I think it just really came down to the fact that I didn't want to do the mo-cap thing, and therefore, how do we blend it? Because also, you've got things where you've got animation and live-action, and it's obvious what's animation and what's live-action, so there's a few characters where we can blur those lines a little. I'm not sure how that will manifest itself or how it will turn out, but that's the goal.

Cinematical: At their Visionaries panel, James Cameron talked about the way that Peter Jackson's Gollum showed him that performance capture was at the stage that he felt he could do Avatar. Do you or have you seen films that gave you a similar sense that a technology or design element had made a step forward that would make you want to use it?

Burton: It happens all of the time. I mean, yeah, definitely. That's why, for me, I didn't want to use mo-cap, but it's getting better all of the time, and it's great that people are doing it. I think the more tools, the better; that's why people go, oh, how come you're not doing this this way or that way, and the fact is there's no right way or wrong way. Robert Zemeckis does his things because he wants to do a certain thing, and that's great, and other people have a different way they want to do it. But each one is great; there's no right or wrong way to do it, I think. It should just be open to whatever the elements are, whatever the project is, use those elements, and all tools.

Cinematical: At the 9 panel an attendee said to you, "I'm a huge fan, and not in a hot topic kind of way." Is there any consciousness either consciously ignoring it or being aware of it when you take on new projects, that there is an association between you and a certain persona of being dark, brooding, or this goth guy?

Burton: No. You know, it happens to you in school – once you get a reputation for something, no matter what you do or who you are, it's like it sticks with you. I don't know where that one really came from because I don't consider myself that at all. I don't know if this answers your question, but I try not to think about it too much; it's that kind of thing like, you're a human being, not a thing, you know! I find it nice when people are complimentary or like something you do, and that means the most of anything. That means a lot to me, and when that happens, I feel very grateful for it, but I don't think about any kind of labeling or how people perceive me, because it's a slightly disturbing thought to me (laughs).

Cinematical: How then do you find the projects you do? Do you sort of gravitate to them, or is it a matter of being in the right place at the right time?

Burton: It's a mixture of all of that. That's why I don't like to plan too far in advance, because you don't know how you're going to feel. Sometimes a project can come to you, like this, like Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, and I thought, ooh – that sounds intriguing. That's how that happened, but other projects like Nightmare or Scissorhands are things that you want to have and live inside you and you want to do, and sometimes they take a while to [happen]. Like Nightmare, from thinking about it took ten years to get made; Scissorhands similarly, Corpse Bride, similarly. But those are the kind of things that you know you're sometime going to do just because they're inside you and then there are the ones outside that intrigue you.

Burton: "Alice" is an "Experiment"

A short video with Tim Burton by the BBC. Burton mostly covers familiar territory on Alice in Wonderland, but it's great to see ol' Timmy B. doing his emphatic gestures so enthusiastically.

Videos from Comic-Con's "Wonderland"

/Film has some more images from the gallery of props, original costumes designed by Colleen Atwood, and set pieces from Alice in Wonderland at Comic-Con, as well as a video (which may include SPOILERS!!!).






Also, FEARNet has a short video interview with Tim Burton:

UK "Alice" Trailer

The Alice in Wonderland teaser trailer from the UK is similar to the Spanish language version: nearly identical to the American one, but with a slightly different ending:

FEARnet interviews Burton

It's been a busy weekend for Tim Burton at Comic-Con, and plenty of interviews to do. Here's yet another, this time with FEARnet:

What inspired you about Lewis Carroll and Alice?

It's not just the books, it's the characters, songs. There's something about the imagery that he created that still plays in people's minds. Anything that has strong dream-like imagery that stays with you is important to gets into your subconscious and creative thinking. I hadn't seen any movie version that I really liked, so the intent was to take that imagery and turn it into a movie... Every character's weird, but I tried to give them each their own specific weirdness, so that they're all different. All those characters in his imagery sort of indicate some type of mental weirdness that everybody goes through, but the real attempt was to try to make Alice feel more like a story, as opposed to a series of events.

What drew you to this narrative?

It's a fairly universal concept, these kinds of stories, like Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland. It's an internal journey. These characters represent things inside the human psyche. So that's what every child does – you try to work out your problems as you go along. Same as an adult. Some people get therapy, some people make movies.

Is this your first time at Comic-Con?

I came when I was a student. There were like fifty people and a bad slide show. So this is a whole amazing, different thing.

When did you read the Alice books?

I read the books when I was a student. I had a weird connection, because I bought and worked in the studio of the illustrator Arthur Rackham, who, in around 1905, did the illustrations for all of these books, Alice and Sleepy Hollow. So I felt this weird connection, to me and the material and real life, and that always helps somehow.

Is this a sequel or a reimagining?

It's definitely not a sequel, because there are so many stories in Alice in Wonderland. A couple books. So the goal was to take the sort of randomness of the book, take elements of the book and make it into a story. A lot of it is based on the "Jabberwocky" poem in one of the stories, which is not a big part of the story, so we're just using elements from all of the books. They don't really have a specific structure.

Is it a love story [between Alice and the Mad Hatter]?

She's just a little girl, please!

"Alice" Props and Costumes

Some props, costumes designed by Colleen Atwood, and more from Alice in Wonderland on display at Comic-Con. Pictures courtesy of Ain't It Cool News:

Glimpse of Alice's Armor

A glimpse of the armor Alice must don in order to battle the Jabberwocky. Learn more in the following link, but beware of SPOILERS!!!

Connelly, Burton on "9"

Michael Cavna of the Washington Post went to Comic-Con and interviewed producer Tim Burton and Jennifer Connelly, who has lent her voice for one of the ragdoll warriors in 9.

Burton, and many other filmmakers, often have to bend their schedules to come to the immense convention (this is Burton's first time coming to the event as a filmmaker).

"I'm going back to work right after this," Burton laughed. "I just have so much to do," he continued. "It's weird -- you usually talk about stuff after you're done. But to talk about it while you're doing it -- you feel like somebody is strangling you. You think: 'Oh man, I shouldn't even be here.'"

Burton is even busy at the convention, promoting two highly anticipated features. Both he and Connelly were asked about director/creator Shane Acker's 9. After over 20 years of acting in films (during which she won an Oscar), this is Connelly's first time doing a voice-over for an animated feature.


So what attracted each of you to this plucky band of post apocalyptic stitchpunks?

Connelly: Shane has a really unique vision that I thought was really inspiring.


Burton: Same thing -- I saw the short. You could just feel his passion. My idea of getting involved with it was: You see a lot of personal films, but you don't see a lot of personal animated films.


Burton at the Alice in Wonderland panel at Comic-con with moderator Patton Oswalt (Photo Credit: John Shearer -- Getty Images)


So as the producer, did you run interference and help Shane [whose credits include visual effects for 2003's "Lord of the Rings"] fight the studio battles?

Burton: I used to have endless arguments with Disney, like [the studio would say], "Can you put some eyeballs [in]? There are these black sockets. How are you going to feel for a character that has no eyes?" And I was anticipating that. But fortunately, that didn't happen on this. The studio [Focus Features] has been great.

Can you both speak to what about the story -- specifically -- drew you to it? Heroic futuristic rag dolls fighting robots isn't your everyday fare.

Burton: We've all seen post-apocalyptic imagery, but the thing about this that's surprising is that it sneaks up on you -- the humanity. It's very touching. I just find it strangely emotional.



Actors typically rely so much on their bodies for performance. How did you feel as a voice actor, not getting to use your body?

Connelly: Oh, I did. You just didn't see it!

Burton: The animators appreciated it -- I can guarantee you that!... It's very important to an animator -- they get a lot from that.

And how did the process feel different, as a first-time voice actor?

Connelly: I'm used to meeting with everyone and having a long rehearsal time and you can sit around and chat about things and exchange ideas. This was pretty much over the phone with Shane -- his explaining his vision to me. It's a more disjointed process than I'm used to. Over a period of years, you come in months later. There was this one session with Elijah [Wood, who voices the character "9"] where we didn't even have any lines together, but . . . he sort of did his lines and I watched him. And he watched me do my lines.

Burton: It's kind of amazing that anything works out at all!

Connelly: You feel like you're invested in it, but it's a much more private, quiet way of working on something. . . . I was trying not to think about this character [named 7] as anything other than human. This little stitchpunk character.

You're both parents, of course. Will kids want to see this film, given its bleak setting?

Connelly: As a mom, my kids [Stellan and Kai], they loved the short, so [they'll like this film]. If I watched that short once, I watched it a hundred times. They wanted to watch it over and over.

So what about your upcoming projects? Tim, you've got "Alice."

Burton: I'm going back to work on it right after this!


Jennifer Connelly

What about you, Jennifer?

Connelly: I did a film called "Creation" with my husband [Paul Bettany] in which he plays Charles Darwin and I play Emma Darwin.

Is this your first time acting opposite each other in a feature film? I don't recall you sharing any scenes in "A Beautiful Mind."

Connelly: We had only one scene together, but I wasn't supposed to be able to hear him.

Burton (alluding to actress/partner Helena Bonham Carter): And they're still speaking to each other!... You know, it's harder than people think.

LA Times Interviews Tim Burton

Photo: Tim Burton at "9" panel. Credit: Getty Images

Gina McIntyre of the Los Angeles Times gives us a thorough interview with filmmaker Tim Burton from Comic-Con, part of their "Hero Complex" series. (This interview was originally split in parts one and two.) Burton discusses 9 and producing the unique animated feature with fellow visionary director Timur Bekmembetov, how challenging and different Alice in Wonderland is from his previous works, Dark Shadows, his next project, in relation to the recent vampire craze, and much, much more:


G.M.: What's your Comic-Con experience been like so far?

T.B.: I haven't been here in many years. I came here as a student in the '70s and haven't been back since. It's quite amazing how big it's gotten. It's shocking really. It's such a positive energy, there's a lot of passionate people, so it's a bit daunting to show something but that's why you make movies. That's what's great about the environment here. People are very passionate about the environment here and that's again why you make movies so it's exciting to be around that energy. I love seeing people dressed up. It's surreal and amazing and beautiful. I just remember last time I was there, it was some booths and stuff, but the builds that they have, it's incredible.

G.M.: You mentioned during the Focus Features' panel on 9 that you felt you shared a certain sensibility with the film's director, Shane Acker. I can't imagine that's something you experience too often.

T.B.: I don't. Also, too it was different enough from mine, but I felt a connection to it. Having gone through this process myself trying to get films made and done and how much of a problem it is to have that happen, I thought I could help him with that, I thought I could help protect him from the forces of evil and let him focus on making his film.



G.M.: What specifically did you do to help him get the film made?

T.B.: I suggested the screenwriter [Pamela Pettler] who I'd worked with before. What I tried to do, I've been an animator, it's a very strange job. It requires a lot of focus and sometimes you can just get so focused on something, so I felt very lucky to not be in there every day and just be able to look at things and have a fresh perspective. Animation takes so long it's hard to have a fresh view of it especially when it's so in your head. It was luck for me and for [producer] Timur [Bekmembetov] that we could [provide] more of an overview, look at things from a fresh perspective and just kind of help that way. I didn't want to be one of those guys, I liked what he did, so there was no wanting to put my own stamp of approval on it. He could use us however he wanted, and he's very open, which is great. There was no weird ego kind of thing going on. I always felt that real artists don't have that kind of insecurity when it comes to taking suggestions or listening to somebody else's point of view. He was very open to it. That made it very easy to be involved. It was always for the benefit of the film. He took the notes he felt good with. But that's the way you want it. Otherwise, you shouldn't get involved with something if you're going to have to put your own stamp on to it.


Fellow 9 producer Timur Bekmambetov

G.M.: Did you know Timur before this?

T.B.: No. I'd seen his films. It's great to meet somebody like that. It just brought a whole other perspective too. It was a real international film in the sense. We were first looking to do it in Luxembourg and ended up in Toronto, Paris, London, all over the world.

G.M.: You've said that we're at an interesting creative point in animation right now. Does a project like this still need a name like yours behind it to help get it made?

T.B.: I don't think so. The technology has gotten to the point where people can actually do this, they don't need a studio to get involved. It also helps doing it for a budget where there's not that pressure that you get when you have a bigger budget film. The fact is the studio was fine on this. The kinds of fights I've had in the past on things didn't really manifest themselves on this. I think it helps that we did it and then went to a studio as well, so it was a different situation. I've been through it, Timur's made films, Jim Lemley, the other producer... I think it allowed Shane to just focus on the film, which I think is a benefit.

G.M.: Do you still have to have those kinds of arguments?

T.B.: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. At this point, I expected it to go away, but you'd be surprised. There's not a film that goes by where some major issue [doesn't arise]. I like to be a confrontational person. The movie industry it's a very negative aspect of it. They'll only listen if you go completely ballistic, and you just [want to say], 'Can't we not get to that place where you've got to go nuts?' Some are better than others, but you still have these issues because there's so much involved in making the film. It's not going to go easy. If there were no problems, just making the film is enough of a deal.

G.M.: How challenging has it been for you on 'Alice in Wonderland' since you're marrying several technologies to give the film its unique look? But also, how liberating has it been to utilize these new tools?

T.B.: I don't feel liberated yet, no, only because it's a very strange process and I like what I like. That's why I like stop-motion. On a live-action, you've got actors, you've got sets and that's what I like. This is almost the opposite of that. You've got a lot of pieces and not until very late in the game do you see a finished shot. I think I've yet to see a finished shot. It's quite a scary, daunting process. It's exciting but it's the opposite of what I'm used to. You see a piece of a shot and it's like a puzzle. You're trying to hope and make sure it gets to the right place but you're only seeing one piece at a time.



G.M.: Did the process change how you worked with the actors?

T.B.: No. Because it's such a long, big process, the key with that is to try to keep that as energetic as quick and moving as possible because otherwise you just get bogged down in technology. We just didn't worry about the technology to begin with and just started to shoot so the actors could keep their energy and their focus. With these kinds of things you're acting against an animated character or something that's not there, so there's a lot of that kind of stuff.

G.M.: The sets and the costumes that Disney has on display here are just beautiful.

T.B.: We had some reality to hang onto there a little bit. It helps, believe me. This is the first time I've dealt with a lot of green screen and it drives you nuts. After a while you start to get kind of jittery and crazy. It's a weird phenomenon. I'd never really experienced it to this degree. The thing is, you can't really deal with Method actors in that scenario. They're in trouble. That was part of the thing, you're going to be working in a void and you're going to be dealing with people who aren't there and you try to suss that out before you work with somebody. You can kind of tell when you meet somebody if they're going to go for it and I like those people anyway. I worked with some new people that I hadn't worked with and they were all great.

G.M.: There's so much 'Alice' material. How did you go through and select what to include in the film.

T.B.: Linda [Woolverton] the screenwriter, that was the thing I thought she did well and it was a hard thing to do. As books, [the story], it's very episodic, this story, that story. She ended up kind of using a lot of the vibe of the Jabberwocky poem, the weird language, that figures into it. You can't have every character but we tried to keep the few iconic ones, the Hatter, of course, and the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit and the March Hare and Red Queen, White Queen, that fit within the story that Linda wrote. Obviously there are a lot of characters that aren't in it. It was more important to take that material and try to make it a movie. Every other version I've ever seen I've never really connected to because it's always just a series of weird events. She's passively wandering through, [meeting] this weird character, that weird character. It's fine in the books, but the movies always felt like there wasn't anything underneath them. That's what we tried to do. Instead of the Hatter just being weird, is get some kind of underneath him, some kind of character underneath him. That's the goal is to give the Alice material a little more weight to it.


Tim Burton on the set of Alice in Wonderland with Mia Wasikowska

G.M.: That notion of making her less passive is very interesting. Was that something that you talked about with actress Mia Wasikowska?

T.B.: What I liked about her is she's not a big demonstrative actor. She's got that old soul quality, somebody you can see has an internal life and intelligence and a gravity to her and kind of a slightly disturbed quality, which fits into the material. You've got to believe that she's got an internal life. That's what a lot of these stories are, characters kind of working out their issues or problems. You like to find somebody and they don't have to say anything or do anything, but you look at them and you know there's something going on, they have some kind of gravity.

G.M.: Was that a difficult quality to find in a young actress?

T.B.: I met lots of good actresses but [Mia] just had something different about her that I liked. She's very quiet. It's not even something that you can put into words. I like those kinds of things were you can't necessarily identify it in a verbal or specific way. It's more of a feeling.

G.M.: How long is the post-production process, one year?

T.B.: Well, it comes out in March, so that's when it will end. It will go all the way up to that. It's the kind of project, most of these that use this kind of technology take probably a couple of years longer than we have. I don't mean that as an excuse. In some ways there's something kind of good about just having to do it, but in reality I wish there were more shots done than where we are at this moment. It's been daunting. If you saw how much was missing, you'd be nervous, too. [laughs]

G.M.: Would you do something this technically complex again?

T.B.: Right now it's hard for me to say. Usually you talk about a film, even at the end it's hard, I don't like it. But at this stage all I can think about is how much I've got to do. It's hard to say. I don't really know what the outcome's going to be. Any film you do, you just kind of finish and you wish you could spend a little bit more time on this or that. I don't yet know how much at the end of this I will have felt that I've compromised or not. It's a hard call to know. I don't even think I'm that much of a perfectionist, but it's hard to let go of anything. It's tricky. This one could be pretty rough way I don't know.


An image from the original "Dark Shadows" television series

G.M.: You've talked about doing "Dark Shadows" next. Is that still the plan?

T.B.: I think so, yes. That's the plan. There was something very weird about that, it had the weirdest vibe to it. I'm sort of intrigued about that vibe. It's early days on it, but I'm excited about it.

G.M.: We seem to be in the midst of vampire-mania, what with "Twilight" and "True Blood" and other projects. What do you make of that?

T.B.: It happens. You look at the history of film and whether it's vampires or witches or wizards or whatever, it's like any great fable or fairytale, it's got a power to it. I think that's why people keep going back to it. There's something symbolic about it that touches people in different ways. It's symbolic for something, I'm sure with everybody it's slightly different but it's still powerful. All great stories, there are about five different variations. I grew up on monster movies and it wasn't until later that I realized it's all the same story basically, but the monsters are great and they're all different and it makes it feel like it's all different. The monsters have more personality than the actors around them a lot of times.

Rotten Tomatoes Interview with Tim Burton

Jen Yamato of Rotten Tomatoes spoke with Tim Burton during his visit to Comic-Con. In this interview, the filmmaker talks about his highly-anticipated Alice in Wonderland, the PG-13 rated animated movie 9, and coming to Comic-Con for the first time as a filmmaker pitching his movie to the fans:

Rotten Tomatoes: You're a producer on Shane Acker's "stitchpunk" adventure, 9. Could you describe your involvement as far as what kind of input you had in the production?

Tim Burton: Well I saw Shane's short film, many years ago, and I loved it. It felt like it was a part of a bigger picture, so I met him and talked to him, and... I just got excited because it was not something I had seen before. You've seen post-apocalyptic imagery before, but there was something about this that was quite touching. I just really loved it, I felt very connected to it. I'm going through the kind of thing myself, where it was hard to get movies going; I just felt I could help him keep the outside forces away and let him make his movie. What was really nice about it was, you see a lot of personal films, but you rarely see personal animated films. It was exciting to me to see that happen.

RT: How did Shane describe the project to you initially?

TB: He didn't have to, because he had the short film. That's the best.He didn't really have to sell himself, you could see his talent in what he was doing. He spent so much time on the short, that he already kind of had some idea in mind how to expand it. So we hired a script writer that I'd worked with before, and she helped flesh it out. With nine characters, you only see a couple, so it was interesting to see these other creatures.



RT: Would 9 appeal in the same way to younger audiences and older ones?

TB: I'm sure some people might think it'll be too scary for kids, and it's quite intense, it's quite scary. But there's nothing in it - there's no blood, nudity, or swearing, or things that maybe would make it not appropriate for kids. So I think it's one of those things; kids are funny, a lot of kids like that sort of things, some kids are afraid of that sort of thing, but I feel comfortable showing it to a kid. Because I would have loved it myself.

RT: What kind of creative notes did you give Shane?

TB: As an animator, you really have to do so much, think about so many things. Your mind is just filled with details; Shane's got to do this and that. For me it was easy; I was just sort of somebody who could give a fresh perspective. I think all of the producers, our job was to let him do his thing and keep any outside evil forces away and let him focus on the film, and when appropriate, make some suggestions. It was very easy, because there weren't any egos involved. Shane's such a good artist that he didn't feel threatened by anybody if they had a suggestion. So yes, our primary goal was to let him do his thing.

RT: What were your interactions like with 9's other director producer, Timur Bekmambetov?

TB: Same thing. He's made movies, too. He's great; he has a different perspective. It felt like a very positive group of people. There were no fights, or drag-out things. Everybody was just all for the project, so it was good. You usually have to have more fights to get things done, and this was more focused on the movie, which was good.

RT: The idea of an established director taking a younger filmmaker under his or her wing is nice, that even an auteur would take an interest in helping another artist's career.

TB: I think I felt connected to his sense of design and the world he crafted. I've not done characters like that, but it's an aesthetic I felt close to. That's, again, why I wanted to be involved, because I felt like, if he wants some suggestions I could give them to him, if he doesn't, fine. So it felt very easy, there wasn't a lot of pressure for me. The pressure's on him for that. [Laughs] I was helpful when necessary.

RT: As it happens, Peter Jackson recently described his similar relationship producing a younger director, Neill Blomkamp, on his film, District 9. He talked of it as protecting the director from the studio, if need be.

TB: Absolutely. Especially when you've been through it yourself. It stays with you, those things, and I always wished I had somebody like that because you work with people that are supposed to protect you, but then they end up [saying], "Well, you've got to do it like this, or like that." And that's not what anybody wants. As a director, I don't want anybody to do that to me. So I was very aware of not wanting to do that to him, and again, protect him and be of use whenever was helpful.

RT: Did you have a mentor yourself in your early career?

TB: Not really. That's why it's nice to be able to, if it works out that way, to do that for someone. I mean, you don't do it with anyone; you have to share some connective tissue, otherwise, why do it? I felt that connection with Shane, and I also wanted to see what he was going to do. So it was more of an exciting prospect.



RT: I would imagine you probably have enough of your own ideas funneling into your own directorial projects.

TB: Yeah, it wasn't like Shane didn't have anything. He didn't have to come in and pitch it, and say, "It's a cross between Terminator and Wall-E," or whatever. He didn't have to do any of that, because he had his film, so it was very easy.

RT: On Thursday you appeared on a panel here to share the first trailer for Alice in Wonderland. What were your feelings presenting yourself to the Comic-Con crowd for the first time as a filmmaker?

TB: I haven't been here since I was a student, so obviously it's gotten much bigger. But the thing that's always been great about it is that people are very passionate about things, so it's scary because you don't know how people are going to react, but at the same time, that passion is very exciting. There's an energy to this kind of thing. It's great, it's really exciting -- people dressing up and that kind of thing. I love it. It was that way many years ago, it's just a lot more of it, bigger. But it's still got that spirit, which is nice.

RT: You noted that you're still in production on Alice. How far along are you?

TB: I'll be working up until the end. It's a weird process, because we're using so many different techniques, it takes a very long time to get to a finished shot, so I have very few finished shots, if any. And it comes out in March. So there's a lot of work to do, but a lot of it will come together at the end. It's a bit scary, but it's exciting as well.

RT: Considering how many different balls you're juggling with Alice, so to speak, do you think this is a film you could have made early in your career, or is there a sort of necessary learning process as a filmmaker that you had to go through to get to this point?

TB: No, it would be hard. It's kind of working in the opposite way of how you work. Usually you have actors and sets and you do a shot and you know what you're going to get, even with stop-motion animation -- you have a set and character there, and you know pretty quick what you're getting. This is like the opposite; you've got this little piece, and that little piece, and you're trying to stick them together. And you don't know exactly what you're going to get! So it's scary and it's exciting, but it's nice to keep that sort of fear factor.



RT: What I like best about that idea is that means there are all those elements that will eventually come together in the final film, but for now they're only dancing around in your head.

TB: Well, they're trying to be held together. That's the scary part! My head leaks a lot, so I don't know what's going to happen. But it's good to have that kind of challenge. The fact is, in film you don't know -- you never know how something's going to turn out. You have something in your head, and it might come out 90 percent of that, 50 percent, who knows? But it's all that way anyway, so this is just the extreme version of that.

"Alice in Wonderland" Video Games

Next Year, Nintendo will release the video game adaptations of Alice in Wonderland on Nintendo DS and Wii. No release date has been announced yet.

The game's premise is you travel Underland as Alice -- with characters such as the Mad Hatter, March Hare, White Rabbit, and Chesire Cat by your side -- and battle the menacing Red Queen and monstrous Jabberwocky.

The Mad Hatter and Chesire Cat, for example, have unique abilities to assist Alice on her quest. The Mad Hatter can help Alice alter her perception of Underland, allowing her to discover optical illusions to open up new parts of the bizarre world, that would otherwise have gone overlooked. The Chesire Cat has the power to make himself and objects appear and disappear. Combining these powers can help you solve puzzles.


The two versions of the game will differ in some ways. The Wii version, for example, follows the film's storyline and will feature an upgradeable combat system. You must use your abilities and supporting characters to defeat the Red Queen's numerous enemies and army of cards, destroy the Jabberwocky, and restore Underland to order -- to Wonderland.

In the DS version, you guide Alice and her associates through the dangerous armies. The DS version of the game will also feature a playable character not available in the Wii version. In addition, DS players can use the system's camera to detect colors mapped to unlockable content when tasks are completed.



"These games fully capture the magnificent and whimsical world of Underland while experiencing key moments from the film," said Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. "More than just a retelling of the movie, Alice in Wonderland introduces fans to an entirely new style of innovative gameplay designed to challenge the puzzle solving skills of older players while making the adventures accessible and enjoyable for the younger crowd. Innovative gameplay and distinct artistic styles on each platform gives players a range of unique and engaging experiences."

Spanish "Alice" Trailer

Check out the Spanish language version of the Alice in Wonderland teaser trailer. The ending features different footage from the English one. Anyone know what the Mad Hatter is saying?:

Burton on 3D

Popular Mechanics spoke with Tim Burton. The director had a few words on 3D filmmaking on Alice in Wonderland: "I felt with the techniques that we were using—live action but manipulating it, plus the other elements we're adding in—[converting the movie] gave us more freedom to get the depth layers we wanted in the time frame we're dealing with," Burton tells PM. "But in the Alice world—the shrinking and the growing and the spatial stuff—3D helps with the experience."

"Alice" (and more) at Comic-Con

Some more bits of information on the recent Comic-Con events concerning Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland:

Screen Crave provided these little updates from Thursday's Disney 3D panel:

11:58: Tim Burton is about to come out for his first panel!

12:00: [Moderator Patton] Oswald asked [Burton] why he made Alice: his answer "because of the hardcore realistic setting" and then when asked about the clips he responded with "it looks like a freak show doesn’t it?"


Moderator Patton Oswalt and Tim Burton at the Disney 3D Panel

12:01: Tim jokes that they skinned Carrot Top for The Mad Hatter's wig. Depp enjoys having a part in the costumes (as always). As for the cat, it's creepy, which Tim says "confirms his hatred of cat" and says that Stephen Fry does the voice.

About to see clip! BRB!

12:05: Safest way to do PCP, watch his film Alice. It was a short clip. Only 30 seconds or so. Going to play it again...

12:07: Just got to see a clip twice that is "ONLY FOR COM-CON"… As they say in the clip; Alice – "This is impossible." Mad Hatter – "Only if you think it is." Absolutely beautiful images of [Tweedledee] and [Tweedledum]. The Mad Hatter is completely mad. The Cheshire cat is completely creepy.

12:10: Just got the first fan boy. Was so excited to ask a question and share his story he didn’t [let?] Burton talk.

12:11: "How did you work with actors to get them into character?" "Kept it as lively as possible and as fast as possible. green screen starts to freak you out after a while, you don't know who you are or where you are. You just try to keep moving and grooving."

12:12: His favorite films. Bits of all of them but Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood are special.

12:14: "What was the most difficult thing to do in this movie?"

12:15: WAIT!!!! Johnny Depp is here...


Johnny Depp and Tim Burton

12:17: Johnny Depp came out, got a HUGE standing ovation, said “Tim Burton!” everyone cheered and he left.


DreadCentral.com also reported that Tim Burton confirmed his next film after Alice in Wonderland: a feature adaptation of the Dan Curtis television drama Dark Shadows. Johnny Depp will star as Barnabas Collins. (No word on the feature-length animated version of Frankenweenie, that we know of...)



Johnny Depp makes a surprise appearance at Comic-Con

Coverage of Burton Q&A at Comic-Con

/Film has reported on the Q&A with Tim Burton following the showing of the teaser trailer of Alice in Wonderland at Comic-Con:

"In the Q&A, Burton mentioned that it was very difficult for him to get used to shooting with green screen. He mentioned that he stuck to a fast and involved method of shooting with his actors to help maintain a sense of reality. Burton also mentioned that they didn’t use much motion capturing in the film—instead, they stuck to animating the digital characters by hand. Overall, he felt the most difficult aspect of making this film is the process he’s currently stuck in, editing and putting together all of the many pieces of the film.

"In contrast to many other Alice adaptations, Burton mentioned that the film will utilize elements from the two Alice books (Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass), as well as reference smaller material found within those books such as the poem Jabberywocky.

"Towards the end of the panel, Burton unveiled Johnny Depp as a surprise guest. He didn’t stick around for too long, but did reveal that he unfortunately can’t see films in 3D, so he’ll probably never get to experience this film fully."

"Alice" Teaser Trailer in Hi-Def

You can now officially see the teaser trailer for
Alice in Wonderland in high definition:

High Definition:

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_1080.mov

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_720.mov



Quicktime:

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_High.mov



iPod:

http://wdmp.rd.llnwd.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_iPod.m4v.zip

Mad Hatter Concept Art

More concept art from character designer Michael Kutsche -- this time of the Mad Hatter.

Red Queen Concept Art

Character designer Michael Kutsche has posted a piece of concept art he made of the Red Queen for Alice in Wonderland.

On the DeviantArt page, Kutsche describes his experience with working on the film:


"In 2008 I had the opportunity to do a lot of the character designs for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland".


I was very lucky to meet Tim Burton as well as Ken Ralston from Sony Imageworks, I've been working directly at the film set in Plymouth and later on at the set in LA, it's been a great time working for one of my favourite directors.
Seeing Johnny Depp's performance was also mindblowing, he's amazingly talented.

Since some images have already been released, including an image of Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, I thought it could be nice to show the initial concept art.
I had a very quick sketch by Tim Burton to start with, the final costume that Helena is wearing is Colleen Atwood's work, she's a fantastic academy award-winning costume designer.
The artwork is completely done with Corel Painter X.

My IMDb page: [link]

Enjoy!"

New Red Queen Image

A new image of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her court has surfaced online.

"Alice in Wonderland" Trailer!

It's here!

EDIT: Looks like it's been removed from the Interwebs... for now...

EDIT 2: Wait -- it's on Facebook!

New Red Queen Image and Trailer Contest

/Film has a new image of Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen from Vanity Fair. There's also a description of the trailer for Alice in Wonderland which might be shown at Comic-Con this week.

Also, Facebook has an interesting contest: become a fan of one of the three characters from Alice in Wonderland. Those who became fans of the character who gets the most followers will be able to see the exclusive Alice trailer on Thursday at 4:00 PM!

The characters to choose from are:

The Mad Hatter
The Red Queen
The White Queen

(At this point, the Mad Hatter is winning.)

Or, if you'd rather wait, the teaser trailer for Alice in Wonderland will be attached to G-Force in theaters. The teaser will be in 3D.

"Semi-Trailer" of "Alice" at Comic-Con

Tim Burton has said that the very first public footage of Alice in Wonderland will be shown at Comic-Con this week -- in the form of a "semi-trailer."

"[It's] a kind of a semi-trailer," Burton said. "It’s where we’re at at the moment. There’s not a lot of footage to show."

Burton gave more information to MTV News. The director commented on the challenge of incorporating live-action, 3D, motion capture, and various forms of animation in several sequences. "It's a strange process we’re dealing with," he explained. "We're using a mix of techniques. If you picked them apart, each technique has been done before. We’re mixing them up, in a way."

"I wish we had more footage to show," Burton added. "It's a real mysterious puzzle that's frightening and exciting at the same time."

The director also explained why he took on the project, based on his interest in the source material and his disappointment with past cinematic adaptations. "The thing about it is it’s a series of stories," he said. "For me that's always been a problem with the movie versions of it. It's always been a girl going from one weird adventure to another, and for me it didn’t have much of an impact in the versions I’d seen before. Everyone’s crazy. We tried to take the 'Alice' mythology and characters and make a story out of it and be true to the spirit of what 'Alice' is about."



Burton also faulted past imaginings of the Hatter. "When you look at most interpretations, everything is pretty one-note," he said. "Everybody is crazy. With him, we are always trying to find a subtext and layer to it so it's rooted in humanity to some degree—something deeper than just being nuts." We shall see how Johnny Depp presents the Mad Hatter on March 5th, 2010.

Despite his crazy experience at a Superman panel at Comic-Con during the 1970s, the director is looking forward to showing dedicated fans a sample of Wonderland. "The great thing about it is the people are passionate and that’s what you want," he said. "That's why you do what you do."

In the spirit of the origins of the pop culture convention, Burton also talked comic books and comic book movies -- namely Batman. He gave his opinions on the recent Christopher Nolan blockbusters based on the Dark Knight.

"These [movies] are great. When I got involved with [the Batman franchise] many years ago things were ripe for a different interpretation," Burton told MTV News. "When you look at character novels and [regenerated characters], they're such strong things that they can take reinvention."

"At the time for the '89 'Batman' it felt different at the time to make it darker," he added. "That still is the trend to this day. At some point maybe it'll go back to Adam West!"

New "Alice" Pic

We have a new image from Alice in Wonderland: It's Alice -- in Wonderland!

Picture from /Film.

The White Queen and the Dormouse?

Empire brings us a new image that has surfaced from Wonderland: Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, with what might be the Dormouse in her hand.

There will apparently be many actual animal characters in the film, as the other Empire character photos suggest.

Tim Burton at Comic-Con

On July 23rd, Tim Burton will be on a panel with Robert Zemeckis, Sean Bailey, Steve Lisberger, and moderator Patton Oswalt. The "Disney: 3D Panel" is presented by Walt Disney Pictures. The panelists will be discussing the upcoming Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, and Tron. The discussion will take place on Thursday, July 23rd at Comic-Con, from 11:00 am until 12:30 pm, in Hall H.

New "Alice" Character Pics

Planet Disney and /Film have provided more character images from Alice in Wonderland from Vanity Fair magazine. See Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Mia Wasikowska as Alice, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen below:

Sheen on White Rabbit

Like Stephen Fry giving information on the Chesire Cat, Twitter has provided some details on Alice in Wonderland once again -- this time from Michael Sheen:


@michaelsheen Are you just the voice of the white Rabbit in Tim Burton's Alice? Or will you be it physically?about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to michaelsheen
nessdm
Venessa DM
Footer

# @nessdm Just voice. All the animal characters are cg or stop motion.9 minutes ago from web in reply to nessdm
#


Read Michael Sheen's Twitter here.

"Alice" Posters Arrive to Theaters

From IESB.net:

First "Alice" Poster

The first (and low-resolution) poster for Alice in Wonderland has made its debut. This one features Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, so perhaps other posters will come out shortly focusing on the other characters.

"Alice in Wonderland" UK Release Date

A couple of images from Empire Magazine, showing Mia Wasikowska as Alice and another little glimpse of Wonderland. The images reveal that Alice in Wonderland will be released in the UK on April 2nd, 2010.

High-Res "Alice" Pics and Logo

Want some high-resolution character and concept art images from Alice in Wonderland? Click on this /Film link.

Interesting how Disney is going for a sort of "auteur's touch" with the phrase "A Film By Tim Burton" in the official logo.

More to come!

"Alice in Wonderland" Official Website Opens

Disney has launched the official Alice in Wonderland website. Not much is there at the moment, except a ticking clock anticipating March 5th, 2010, and the option to register for future updates. But stay tuned...

Bits of "Wonderland" from Visual Effects Supervisor Lantieri

Michael Lantieri, long-time special effects expert and the visual effects supervisor on Alice in Wonderland, gave MTV News some information on the making of Burton's next film, and Lantieri's first collaboration with the director.

"Tim just has a take on it in his head that is unlike anybody that I know," Lantieri said.



A frame from Alice in Wonderland, with Mia Wasikowska as the title character.


There have been countless adaptions of Lewis Carroll's phantasmagorical tale, but Burton's new, ambitious vision proved to be a bit tricky to work out during production.

"There were discussions over everything, including, 'Is it OK for the caterpillar to smoke?'" said Lantieri. "You'd be surprised how big a discussion that was and how they solve it."

3D is also a recycled tool in film, and was almost doomed to become a faddy gimmick decades ago. But although Wonderland was not shot in stereo, this 3D film will attempt to be a new step forward in the recent boom of the 3D revolution in cinema, according to the visual effects supervisor. "I think that's really gonna be something to look at," Lantieri said, declining to go into further detail on the project. "His vision and his take on things — I never get tired of it. If you can only imagine."

Depp on "Wonderland," "Dark Shadows"

Steve "Frosty" Weintraub of Collider.com recently interview Johnny Depp (yes, THE Johnny Depp) and got some words out of the actor regarding his upcoming collaborations with friend Tim Burton: Alice in Wonderland and the big-screen adaptation of Dark Shadows. (Depp also discusses "Pirates 4" briefly in the interview.)

With enthusiasm, Depp confirmed that he will likely become Barnabas Collins. "Dark Shadows is happening," Depp said. "Tim is working on Alice in Wonderland which is obviously quite a large piece of work there. So when Tim is done with Alice and we get the script, which is very, very close, in order we'll probably attack it next year. It's exciting, very exciting. It's like a lifelong dream for me. I loved the show when I was a kid. I was obsessed with Barnabas Collins. I have photographs of me holding Barnabas Collins posters when I was five or six. I’m very excited to do it."



An image from the original television drama, "Dark Shadows." Depp hinted that tackling a feature-length adaptation of the show with Tim Burton might begin as soon as next year.

Johnny Depp also offered some information on Wonderland, just in time for the official debut of some of the film's characters and concept art:

Question: What kind of research did you for your role in Alice in Wonderland? Did you use the book or bring something outside of that to the character?

Depp: Well, certainly the book. The book is the basis for everything. There are little mysteries, little clues in the book that I found fascinating that were keys to at least my understanding of the Mad Hatter, like him saying, 'I'm investigating that begin with the letter M.' That was huge for me because when you do a little digging you realize you’re talking about a hatter, a man who made hats and if you go back and look at some of the historical hatters there’s that term that this guy or that guy is as mad as a hatter. There was a reason for that and the reason for that was mercury poisoning. So I found out what the M was and why they went nuts. So that became a huge thing. Then it was just kind of what I saw and what I thought the guy should look like. I made my little weird drawings and water colors and brought them to Tim [Burton] and he brought me his weird little drawings and water colors and they were not dissimilar [laughs]. You could've put them right together and they were pretty darn close. There’s a lot of color and brightness and then de-saturation in The Hatter. He’s like a mood ring I suppose.



Question: What's so special about your relationship with Tim? Is that he lets you do whatever you’d like as an actor?

Depp: Well, the most special thing is that he very luckily has given me about seven jobs. That's the most amazing thing. I’m looking forward to the eighth and ninth. There’s no real definition other than there is some kind of connection, some sort of understanding that Tim and I have that is at most times unspoken. Most people when they hear Tim give me direction or we’re talking about the character or something on the set, people are baffled. Completely befuddled and they don’t know what we’re talking about. A guy actually came to me one time after watching Tim and I talk for ten minutes and said, 'I didn't understand a word that you guys were saying.' So, yeah. I don't know. It's just one of those things that you don’t question, but I sure love him.

More "Alice" Photos!

Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum and Mia Wasikowska as Alice have made their official debuts. These and the previous Alice in Wonderland posters are supposed to be put up in cinemas shortly.

Burton's "Wonderland" Revealed!

Before its release to theaters on March 5th, 2010, some teaser posters and banners will be coming to cinema lobbies offering the first official glimpses of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

Although the look of the film still retains some of the styles from the Lewis Carroll original book, Wonderland "has been Burtonized," producer Richard D. Zanuck confirms. Zanuck offered some more information. "We finished shooting in December after only 40 days," said the producer. Right now, the live-action is being merged with the CGI and other animated effects, which will eventually be transferred to 3D (the film was not shot in stereo). Alice will be released in regular theaters, as well as IMAX and Disney Digital 3D.



The old tale has been updated a bit as well by screenwriter Linda Woolverton. In Burton's film, Alice (played by Mia Waskiowska) is 17 years old. She attends a party at a Victorian estate. She is proposed to and surrounded by hoards of stuck-up aristocrats. In a desperate escape, Alice slips away, and, led by a white rabbit, but unexpectedly finds herself transported to a very curious world. Apparently, Alice had visited Wonderland 10 years before, but had forgotten. The residents of this strange new world have not been so forgetful, however...

Zanuck had some kind words for Wasikowska: "There is something real, honest and sincere about her," Zanuck says. "She's not a typical Hollywood starlet."



Zanuck gave more tidbits about the characters and the actors playing them. On Johnny Depp as the wild Mad Hatter: "This character is off his rocker."

"He is so much fun and so nutty, I can't imagine anyone else doing it," said the producer. Depp transforms into yet another bizarre character, adopting an accent that Zanuck said was indescribable.



Zanuck also provided some information about the social conflicts in Wonderland, and about its tyrant, the Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter. "The creatures are ready to revolt and waiting for Alice to help them," said Zanuck.



The benevolent White Queen, played by Anne Hathaway, was overthrown by her malicious sister. Richard Zanuck said the White Queen."is beautiful but over the top. She doesn't walk. She floats. She's very eccentric."

Zanuck also revealed that film legend Christoper Lee will indeed play the role of the ferocious Jabberwock.



Matt Lucas will play Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

Click on the USA Today link to explore three detailed pieces of conceptual art and see more of the fantastical Wonderland concocted by Tim Burton and his crew, a world filled with gigantic fungi, mysterious topiary, and anthropomorphic flowers.

Photos courtesy of Disney Enterprises Inc.

Disney Fan Expo Gives Glimpse of "Wonderland"

For eager fans, the first ever Disney fan expo will show some samples of Alice in Wonderland, as well as other upcoming films such as Toy Story 3 and the remake of Tron.

The four-day D23 Expo will take place from September 10-13 at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

More details can be found at this link.

New "Wonderland" Concept Art?

Is this more concept art from Alice in Wonderland? The Russian film website filmz.ru has posted up these images, mostly of a fungal forest.

The initials "JM" appear at the bottom of these illustrations. If it is for Wonderland, then these might have been drawn by either lead model maker Jason Mahakian or set designer Jeff Markwith, as slashfilm suggests.

However, this is just a guess. We can't confirm if these images are actually official concept art for the 2010 film. Still, they're intriguing.

Animation Galore in "Wonderland"

Jim Hill Media was said that Alice in Wonderland "will feature a spectacular sequence of Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole that mixes live action, CG, stop motion as well as hand-drawn animation."

That's all the news for now. More to come in the future!

Official Debut of Wasikowska as "Alice" Pic

Mia Wasikowska as Alice.

An old image, but now officially released, courtesy of Empire.

"Alice in Wonderland" Story and Glossary

/film has provided some interesting information about Alice in Wonderland, based on the screenplay by Linda Woolverton:

"The big surprise for most people, I think, will be that this is at once an adaptation of and sequel to the Lewis Carroll books. This is thanks to a plot wrangle at least as clever as that in Abrams’ Star Trek. Essentially, Wonderland is both a real place and a recurring dream of Alice’s. In this film she’s dreaming of it at a somewhat later part of her life than in the books, so certain things are different. This is just one clever element of a truly charming and surprising screenplay that I’m now really very sure will become a true humdinger of a movie."

The article went on to say that to fully understand the script, you need to know a bit of Wonderland terminology. Thankfully, Woolverton provided a glossary. The glossary may contain some SPOILERS, so if you want to read it, click on this link.

New "Alice" Pic

A new bit of concept art from Alice in Wonderland -- in 3D!!