Alice in Wonderland official cast members: Mia Wasikowska to play Alice, And the beloved Johnny Depp to play the mad hatter

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=47128

Tim Burton Casts His Alice

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

July 24, 2008

Tim Burton and Walt Disney Pictures are in final talks with Australian actress Mia Wasikowska to star in Alice in Wonderland, Burton's take on Lewis Carroll's classic fantasy novel, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The film, based on a script by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King), will be produced by longtime Burton collaborator Richard Zanuck, former Disney chairman Joe Roth and Jennifer and Suzanne Todd. It will be shot with live-action and performance-capture footage and presented in Disney Digital 3-D.

Wasikowska got her start on the Aussie series "All Saints" and is a regular on HBO's "In Treatment." She next will appear opposite Daniel Craig in Ed Zwick's war drama Defiance and just completed filming the role of a young Amelia Earhart fan in Mira Nair's biopic Amelia starring Hilary Swank.

Principal photography starts in November.

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It is still a question if Tim Burton will cast Helena in Alice. I also anticipate the regulars: Danny Elfman music (it wouldn't be a Burton film with out Elfman music behind it!) Coleen Atwood on costumes, and hopefully Christopher Lee and Deep Roy will have a part to play.


Mad as a hatter ... Johnny Depp

And, surprise!, Johnny Depp is (rumored, so far) to play the mad hatter along side Mia Wasikowska.

More Johnny news: from http://www.contactmusic.com

TOMMY LEE WANTS DEPP TO PLAY HIM ON SCREEN

Rocker TOMMY LEE wants JOHNNY DEPP to play him in a movie based on MOTLEY CRUE's memoirs.
The drummer insists Depp is the perfect actor to portray him on the big screen - because he thinks he and the Pirates of The Caribbean star share many of the same character traits.
Lee says, "Johnny Depp would be my choice to play me. He's the best (actor) ever.
"We're working on the film, trying to find the right producers and director and all that sort of stuff."

DANNY ELFMAN INTERVIEW! http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=2890

Exclusive Interview: DANNY ELFMAN FEELS THE BURN COMPOSING 'HELLBOY II' - PART TWO

The composer talks scoring for the big, red, one and his other projects he's working on

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER, SOUNDTRACK EDITIOR
Published 7/22/2008

He may have once been the Oingo Bongo frontman but that was long ago and he is even more famous for his excellent work composing the biggest and best Hollywood blockbusters. Danny Elfman has a pair of films out this summer in WANTED and HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY. In our first part of the interview, Elfman chatted about WANTED. Here he talks HELLBOY II and making big red all the more exciting through sound.

iF: The closest cousin of your scores to HELLBOY is NIGHTBREED, a film where heroic monsters are accompanied with tribal percussion. They even have the same kind of “market” scene.

ELFMAN: NIGHTBREED is essentially a really romantic and somewhat old-fashioned score, like HELLBOY II’s. And I love it when a director will let me do something that's a nod to my own musical roots. When I finished one sequence, Guillermo turned to me and said, "You know, you're making me feel like I'm thirteen years old again with this music." And I said, "Well, this is the kind of stuff I listened to when I was thirteen." It was really fun to be able to do that in HELLBOY II - the thematic romanticism of the prince and princess. The whole thematic side of the Golden Army is very Hermann-esque. In the end, Guillermo and I really felt that we were scoring a George Pal / Ray Harryhausen film with HELLBOY II.

iF: There are also a lot of other, zanier musical elements to the score, especially with the 50's jazz sound that Hellboy and his team arrive with, or the Theremin that’s used on a carnivorous tooth fairy.

ELFMAN: Yes, we used the Theremin for the lighter, fun moments, especially when tooth fairy comes alive. There's a little bit of James Bondi-ness in there as well, which represents the tongue-in-cheek side of the Hellboy character. There are three times in the score when I got to do a funny thing where Hellboy makes his entrance with a huge musical fanfare, which is followed with him saying, “Hey, how you doing?” Guillermo couldn't make that music big enough! But that's his sense of humor.

iF: Was it hard for you to judge where HELLBOY II’s music should be wacky, and when it should be serious?

ELFMAN: No. It was so easy, because anytime we're on Hellboy just bomping around and doing his thing, then the music’s always going to be kind of tongue-in-cheek. And any time were on the Golden Army, the Prince and Princess, and even Abe Sapien, who falls in love, that side of the score is always going to be bigger and more romantic. So it was very easy in that sense, to know when to be funny, and then to suddenly turn on the dramatic juice.

iF: Is a score like HELLBOY II closer to your heart than anything else?

ELFMAN: I really can't say that it is, because there are always moments that I'm really pleased with in any score I do. On WANTED, I enjoyed myself every time I was writing that 'Russian' theme and the Steps of Fate theme. That 'thumping' sound was very close to my heart, and I could have done variations on that theme forever. And when I get to do the big old-fashioned Ju Ju for HELLBOY II, or the stuff that Tim Burton lets me do frequently, then that's also very close to my heart. So it's impossible to say that one score is more 'me.' I look in any movie for something that I can get my teeth into and have fun. I’m just lucky that WANTED and HELLBOY II had a lot of those moments.

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(I personally think that the Edward Scissorhands score and Nightmare Before Christmas pretty much sum up Elfman and are some of his best work. But I also think that Oingo Boingo really defines him as well. You can always tell an Elfman theme be it from a Burton movie or the Simpsons theme, it's such a unique sound. As you can tell I really admire Danny Elfman and love everything he does!)

Read more at the link; He then goes on to talk about his score for the Ballet Rabbit and Rouge.