Meet the cast: Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland'

 

Work is underway on Tim Burton's decidedly un-Disney adaptation of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," and the principal cast has been announced. The latest additions to be made public are Anne Hathaway (pictured above), who catapulted to fame in "The Princess Diaries" and will reportedly portray the White Queen, and Crispin Glover (center), who is coming off of "Beowulf" (and was so memorable in "Back to the Future") and is slated for the Knave of Hearts role. Johnny Depp (right) is the Mad Hatter in a movie that Burton told me he hoped would have "a gravity that most film versions haven't had."

The filmmaker turns to Depp a lot, of course, (this is their seventh project together) and he also is steady in his screen devotion to his partner, Helena Bonham Carter (pictured below, at left) who will be the Red Queen in "Alice." (Burton's movie, like the 1950s Disney adaptation, will apparently combine the Queen of Hearts from "Alice's Adventures" with the Red Queen from "Through the Looking Glass," but that's a conversation for another day.) The title "Alice" role belongs to Aussie newcomer Mia Wasikowska (middle picture, and you can see some photos of her in the role in England in September right here) while British funny guy Matt Lucas (pictured at right, of the U.K. sketch show "Little Britain") will play the rotund dimwits Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Lots more to come on this film....

 

-- Geoff Boucher

RELATED Tim Burton talks about acting chameleon Johnny Depp: "Yeah we have a big dress-up clothes trunk here. We take it with us wherever we go."

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I got Tim Burton on the phone the other day while he was on the set of "Alice in Wonderland" and I had to admit right off the bat that I was surprised that, with the filming just underway, he was taking the time to chat. "Yeah, well, me too," he said in his droll deadpan, and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or apologize and hang up. Then he let me off the hook. "Actually," he said in a sunnier voice, "we're just about to get going so we'll see how things go. Good, I hope."

I'm guessing things will go quite well for the 50-year-old filmmaker, who seems like the ideal auteur to bring Lewis Carroll's surreal 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to the screen for a 21st century audience.

Young Aussie Mia Wasikowska will be Burton's Alice, while Johnny Depp is the inspired choice to play the Mad Hatter.

I told Burton that it seems as if Depp (who has other upcoming roles as an Old West hero, a pirate and a vampire) approaches his acting choices the same way a gleeful kid rummages through a trunk of dress-up clothes. The filmmaker let out a loud laugh. "It's true. Yeah we have a big dress-up clothes trunk here. We take it with us wherever we go."

Johnny Depp will play Tonto in a Disney revisitation of the Lone Ranger, but who will be the masked man?

The Hero Complex is officially supporting Viggo Mortensen for the role of mystery man of the Old West because, after seeing "Hidalgo" and the trailer for "Appaloosa," we just think he does the dusty-trail adventure thing with a nice flair.

George Clooney would also give Disney a powerhouse tandem at the top of this hoped-for franchise, as well as some major opportunity for the type of winking humor that gave "Pirates of the Caribbean" its box-office flair. Clooney may be too old, but we still think he has enough silver bullets in his ammo belt. Depp, meanwhile, may be just five years shy of 50 but still approaches his acting career like a kid rummaging through a trunk of dress-up costumes. Not only will the part-Cherokee Depp be wearing the fringed buckskin, he will also be donning the garb of a pirate, a vampire, a gangster and, um, a guy with a funny hat.

The Oscar nominee has a busy schedule, to say the least. On Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Disney gathered the press for a preview of its upcoming major releases and announced that Depp will be back in eyeliner as Jack Sparrow, the rummy scoundrel of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which will have a fourth installment with Jerry Bruckheimer back as producer. The franchise has already pulled in $2.6 billion at the box office. (Bruckheimer will also produce the Lone Ranger movie.)

Other Depp projects coming include a turn as the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," which will be a 2010 animated release with a motion-capture approach in the same vein as "Beowulf." It will be Depp's seventh major project with Burton -- and No. 8 will be "Dark Shadows," yet another black-cape affair for the movie-making partnership, this one a remake of the baroque soap opera from the late 1960s and early 1970s about an accursed family in Maine that, we suspect, had a lasting effect on a local youngster named Stephen King.

Depp will also be robbing banks as the gentlemen bandit John Dillinger in Michael Mann's period gangster flick "Public Enemies," due in theaters next year. That film also stars Christian Bale.

-- Geoff Boucher

Johnny Depp photo from December 2007 by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times

Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, from the Los Angeles Times archives.

Tim Burton talks about Johnny Depp, 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'The Dark Knight'

EXCLUSIVE

I got Tim Burton on the phone the other day while he was on the set of "Alice in Wonderland" and I had to admit right off the bat that I was surprised that, with the filming just underway, he was taking the time to chat. "Yeah, well, me too," he said in his droll deadpan, and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or apologize and hang up. Then he let me off the hook. "Actually," he said in a sunnier voice, "we're just about to get going so we'll see how things go. Good, I hope."

I'm guessing things will go quite well for the 50-year-old filmmaker, who seems like the ideal auteur to bring Lewis Carroll's surreal 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" to the screen for a 21st century audience.

Young Aussie Mia Wasikowska will be Burton's Alice, while Johnny Depp is the inspired choice to play the Mad Hatter.

I told Burton that it seems as if Depp (who has other upcoming roles as an Old West hero, a pirate and a vampire) approaches his acting choices the same way a gleeful kid rummages through a trunk of dress-up clothes. The filmmaker let out a loud laugh. "It's true. Yeah we have a big dress-up clothes trunk here. We take it with us wherever we go."

Johnny Depp will play Tonto in a Disney revisitation of the Lone Ranger, but who will be the masked man?

The Hero Complex is officially supporting Viggo Mortensen for the role of mystery man of the Old West because, after seeing "Hidalgo" and the trailer for "Appaloosa," we just think he does the dusty-trail adventure thing with a nice flair.

George Clooney would also give Disney a powerhouse tandem at the top of this hoped-for franchise, as well as some major opportunity for the type of winking humor that gave "Pirates of the Caribbean" its box-office flair. Clooney may be too old, but we still think he has enough silver bullets in his ammo belt. Depp, meanwhile, may be just five years shy of 50 but still approaches his acting career like a kid rummaging through a trunk of dress-up costumes. Not only will the part-Cherokee Depp be wearing the fringed buckskin, he will also be donning the garb of a pirate, a vampire, a gangster and, um, a guy with a funny hat.

The Oscar nominee has a busy schedule, to say the least. On Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Disney gathered the press for a preview of its upcoming major releases and announced that Depp will be back in eyeliner as Jack Sparrow, the rummy scoundrel of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which will have a fourth installment with Jerry Bruckheimer back as producer. The franchise has already pulled in $2.6 billion at the box office. (Bruckheimer will also produce the Lone Ranger movie.)

Other Depp projects coming include a turn as the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," which will be a 2010 animated release with a motion-capture approach in the same vein as "Beowulf." It will be Depp's seventh major project with Burton -- and No. 8 will be "Dark Shadows," yet another black-cape affair for the movie-making partnership, this one a remake of the baroque soap opera from the late 1960s and early 1970s about an accursed family in Maine that, we suspect, had a lasting effect on a local youngster named Stephen King.

Depp will also be robbing banks as the gentlemen bandit John Dillinger in Michael Mann's period gangster flick "Public Enemies," due in theaters next year. That film also stars Christian Bale.

-- Geoff Boucher

Johnny Depp photo from December 2007 by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times

Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, from the Los Angeles Times archives.

Who will Johnny Depp call Kemo Sabe?

Johnny Depp will play Tonto in a Disney revisitation of the Lone Ranger, but who will be the masked man?

The Hero Complex is officially supporting Viggo Mortensen for the role of mystery man of the Old West because, after seeing "Hidalgo" and the trailer for "Appaloosa," we just think he does the dusty-trail adventure thing with a nice flair.

George Clooney would also give Disney a powerhouse tandem at the top of this hoped-for franchise, as well as some major opportunity for the type of winking humor that gave "Pirates of the Caribbean" its box-office flair. Clooney may be too old, but we still think he has enough silver bullets in his ammo belt. Depp, meanwhile, may be just five years shy of 50 but still approaches his acting career like a kid rummaging through a trunk of dress-up costumes. Not only will the part-Cherokee Depp be wearing the fringed buckskin, he will also be donning the garb of a pirate, a vampire, a gangster and, um, a guy with a funny hat.

The Oscar nominee has a busy schedule, to say the least. On Wednesday at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Disney gathered the press for a preview of its upcoming major releases and announced that Depp will be back in eyeliner as Jack Sparrow, the rummy scoundrel of "Pirates of the Caribbean," which will have a fourth installment with Jerry Bruckheimer back as producer. The franchise has already pulled in $2.6 billion at the box office. (Bruckheimer will also produce the Lone Ranger movie.)

Other Depp projects coming include a turn as the Mad Hatter in a Tim Burton adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland," which will be a 2010 animated release with a motion-capture approach in the same vein as "Beowulf." It will be Depp's seventh major project with Burton -- and No. 8 will be "Dark Shadows," yet another black-cape affair for the movie-making partnership, this one a remake of the baroque soap opera from the late 1960s and early 1970s about an accursed family in Maine that, we suspect, had a lasting effect on a local youngster named Stephen King.

Depp will also be robbing banks as the gentlemen bandit John Dillinger in Michael Mann's period gangster flick "Public Enemies," due in theaters next year. That film also stars Christian Bale.

-- Geoff Boucher

Johnny Depp photo from December 2007 by Liz O. Baylen/Los Angeles Times

Clayton Moore as the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, from the Los Angeles Times archives.