By Sarah Sluis
Alice in Wonderland adds Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway has played a princess before, but for her next project she's graduated to queen, signing 
on to play the White Queen in Tim Burton's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, two of his recurring casting choices, are already in place as the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, respectively. Eighteen-year-old Mia Wasikowska, who has a role in this winter's Defiance, will play the part of Alice--no doubt her girlish look combined with her over-eighteen status informed the decision, since she won't be restricted by the laws limiting the hours of child actors. Using a combination of live action and performance capture, Burton's film will likely work off the dark but family-friendly style of his film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I am curious about how Burton will integrate the performance capture. Will he use it for animal characters like the Cheshire Cat, or will the film have a Roger Rabbit look?
Tom Thumb film in works
Continuing in the vein of children's folk stories, Warner Brothers plans to adapt Tom Thumb, and has attached Enchanted and Tarzan director Kevin Lima to the project. Under development through the Red Wagon label, the producers hope to spin the story by focusing on the beginnings of Tom Thumb. They're enlisting Robert Rodat to write the screenplay. While best known for his screenplay Saving Private Ryan and war follow-up The Patriot, he got his start writing family pictures Fly Away Home and Tall Tale, and will serve as a good choice if the producers want to emphasize the battles and adventures of the thimble-sized hero. The producers are also undecided about representation of the little man, with live action and CGI both being thrown around as options.
Studios' production slate rich in kid and teen pictures
While Tom Thumb is still in the development phase, Alice in Wonderland will join other a large number of projects going into production now that some of the uncertainty surrounding the renewal of the SAG contracts has blown over. Variety compiled a list of over forty projects going into production. A substantial amount target child and teen audiences:
- Ramona, the classic children's book by Beverly Cleary
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, a Harry Potter knockoff based on a book series about a boy who realizes he is the descendant of a Greek god (directed by Harry Potter alum Chris Columbus)
- Tooth Fairy, which looks to be an Elf-like comedic riff on the coins-for-teeth fairy (if you replace Will Ferrell with stone-faced Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid, an adaptation of a series of cartoon books
- Mars Needs Moms, another illustrated storybook adaptation
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a live action adaptation of the anime-styled comic book
- Footloose remake, starring Zac Efron and sure to draw in tweens and teens
- Fame remake, another song-and-dance high school film
One trend in this slate of films is the popularity of graphic or comic novels as a literary source. With adaptations of action and superhero comics doing so well in the box office, there has been an increased demand to develop books that mine the comic book format, using panels or incorporating illustrations and letters into their stories. Spielberg, for example, is directing animated Tin Tin, based on the French comic. The richness and depth of plot in these stories, however, can be as much help as hindrance, as writers must sift through and delete material over the course of the adaptation. Of all these projects, however, I am most enthusiastic about Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which will be much more about the actors' interpretations of the characters rather than the plot of the original (and rarely read by children anymore) Alice Adventure's in Wonderland.
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