Alice in Wonderland - Trailer for Tim Burton's take on the classic

IGN has unveiled the first teaser trailer for Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Michael Sheen, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway.

What did you think of that then?

Due out on 5th March 2010.

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Alice in Wonderland - More photos

I know that we have seen photos of them before but here are slightly more detailed pics of the costumes and look for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland. Above is Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Below is Mia Wasikowska as Alice (with a white rabbit no less) and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen.
As previously mentioned this is more of a sequel to the original tale - Alice, now 17 years old, as she escapes from a snooty party and follows a white rabbit down a hole, back to Wonderland. The White Rabbit is convinced that he has the right girl, the one who had visited the magical land ten years prior. But Alice doesn’t remember her past visit to Wonderland. The creatures of Wonderland are ready to revolt and are hoping/waiting for Alice to help them, but will she? Can she?
Source: /film

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Mia as Alice and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee & Tweedledum

Earlier today I posted the photos of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathway as the Mad Hatter, Red Queen and White Queen in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. FilmDrunk have the photo of Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Movies.ie has come across this photo of Matt Lucas (Little Britain) as both Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

I personally don't find it as impressive looking as the previous pictures.

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Alice in Wonderland - First proper look at Tim Burton's Wonderland.

There have been hints and teases as to how Tim Burton's adaption of the Lewis Caroll classic would look. There was nothing definite until now. Below are character posters of The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and The White Queen (Anne Hathaway).
They finished shooting after just 40 days the live action is being merged with CG animation and motion-capture creatures, and then transferred into 3-D.
The traditional tale has been freshened with a blast of girl power, courtesy of writer Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast). Alice, 17, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. Off she runs, following a white rabbit into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before yet doesn't remember.
Mia Wasikowska plays Alice. In the top photo you can see the White Rabbit, voiced by Michael Sheen. All in all it is looking very nice. However, I've never been a fan of the story. One of those things that always irritated me a little. I will probably still go and see the film and will marvel at the look of it all, but it does not fill me with as much joy as it does some people.

Source: USA Today

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Terminator Salvation - Early review sounds promising

Some early screenings of Terminator Salvation have taken place and it sounds like the trailers and footage we have seen so far have been bang on the money. This looks like it could be great.

Variety had this to say about it - Possible spoilers ahead:

McG exhibits an unexpected flair for the dreadful, abrupt and awesome. What we get here -- which was perhaps missing on the relatively sunny mental landscapes of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" -- is a sense of real horror: When humans are snatched up like Cheez-Doodles by skyscraper-sized Go-bots, there's no slo-mo relief or stalling. Stuff happens as it might were the world actually overtaken by demonic appliances.

Christian Bale, playing the "prophesized leader of the Resistance" John Connor, may have traded in the Batman body armor for "Road Warrior"-style outerwear, but one thing hasn't changed: He is, once again, a movie star playing second fiddle. Heath Ledger stole "The Dark Knight" away from him and Sam Worthington (who will appear in Cameron's "Avatar" this Christmas) heists "Terminator Salvation" from Bale, for the most ironical of reasons: In a movie that poses man against machine, Worthington's cyborg is the far more human character.

As a steel-beaded logo of Warner Bros. fades away, Marcus (Worthington), on death row for an unexplained crime, gets an 11th-hour visit from Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter), who wears the headscarf and pallor of a terminal cancer patient. She wants Marcus' body -- literally. She wants to turn him into a cyborg.

Wracked with guilt, resigned to his execution, Marcus agrees to sign the release in exchange for a kiss. "So that's what death tastes like," he says, as she leaves him to his lethal injection.

This is not your governator's "Terminator."

Bale, meanwhile, playing the adult version of the hero-to-be portrayed by Edward Furlong ("Terminator 2) and Nick Stahl ("Terminator 3"), is as purposeful and furious as anyone played by Arnold Schwarzenegger or Robert Patrick. One suspects he's been studying Linda Hamilton in "Terminator 2," although -- let's face it -- this is serious business. It's 2018. Skynet -- the "aware" machine -- has all but accomplished its self-appointed mission of destroying the threat of people.

But pockets of rebellion continue to operate even if, as in the case of a charred and rubble-strewn Los Angeles, the local contingent consists of just two kids: Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and the mute/cute Star (Jadagrace).

Kyle -- given a slightly geeky and perfectly plausible portrayal by Yelchin ("Star Trek") -- will grow up to father John Connor after being sent into the future to meet Sarah Connor (if you haven't followed the "Terminator" time line, this is no time to be catching up).

Thus, he has to be preserved. So does John, given that it's been predicted since 1984 that he'll be the one to save the world. There's a lot at stake.

McG's direction is always intelligent. (He does seem to have a thing for "The Great Escape," which is referenced several times.) The script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris occasionally goes off the rails. Certainly, their insertion of an existential dilemma for Marcus -- "I need to find out who did this to me," he says, his chrome-plated plumbing having been exposed to the open air -- feels very late-inning.

And the obligatory borrowing from the previous movies ("Come with me if you want to live," "I'll be back ...") tend to upset the mood created within McG's bleached-out world, which is very deliberate and doesn't need the comic relief.

There are great bits though: The thrashing, centipede-like, killer-snake thingie, which has the personality of a wolverine, is a neat invention. So are the biker Terminators, which molt like malignant pinecones off their towering mother ‘bot. A Schwarzenegger lookalike -- it isn't clear whether it's the ex-actor CGI'd or a complete fabrication -- is funny, but in this case apt.

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Terminator Salvation - First Look at Helena Bonham Carter as Serena

Fast Company had this excellent interview with director McG and Special Effects Supervisor John Rosengrant. In it, McG talks about what he shares in common with Shaun White, Seth MacFarlane, the Google founders and Bill Gates.

He then discusses the balance between animatronics and CGI, and how to seamlessly blend the two in a believable way. That process begins with an artist's rendering, like the image of Serena, above.

Source: Fast Company

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Alan Rickman talks about Alice in Wonderland

This is a radio interview where Alan Rickman discuss Tim Burton's upcoming film 'Alice in Wonderland'. Rickman is playing the Caterpiller in the mix of CGI and real life.

The film also stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as The White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Crispin Glover as The Knave of Hearts, Stephen Fry as The Cheshire Cat, Christopher Lee, Timothy Spall as The Bloodhound, Eleanor Tomlinson as Fiona Chataway, Noah Taylor, and Matt Lucas as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Thanks to Pam for sending me the link.

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Our first proper glimpse through the looking glass at Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

D23 is a Disney fan club that launched earlier this week and as part of a membership, you get a subscription to their quarterly magazine filled with photography and articles on all-things Disney. Featured in this first issue is an article on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which is currently in-production aiming for a March 5th, 2010 release. It included these photos that give us our first proper glimpse at the new adaption.

Abovie is Mia Wasikowska as Alice as well as a look at the Mad Hatter's tea party table. The Tim Burton Collective are the good people who scanned the photos for us all to see.

First Showing also had this quote from the magazine by Tim Burton:

"It's kind of a mixture of some distorted live action and animation. I can't
relate it to anything because I'm not sure what to relate it to. It's kind of
new territory for me,"

Also starring in the film are Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway plays the White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter plays the Red Queen, Alan Rickman plays the Caterpillar, Crispin Glover plays the The Knave of Hearts, Stephen Fry plays the Cheshire Cat. Christopher Lee is also starring.

I've never been a big fan of the Alice in Wonderland tale, but I love many of Tim Burton's other films and he has got a great cast involved so I'll definitely give it a watch when it comes out. All in all it is shaping up to be a most curious piece of film.

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New Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Trailer

Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information. Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn’t counted on Romilda Vane's chocolates! And then there's Hermione, simpering with jealously but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.

Release Date: July 17, 2009 (conventional theaters and IMAX)
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: David Yates
Screenwriter: Steven Kloves
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, David Bradley, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Natalia Tena, Julie Walters, David Thewlis, Evanna Lynch, Matthew Lewis, Bonnie Wright, Jim Broadbent, Helen McCrory, Jessie Cave, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Frank Dillane
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HBC to join Terminator Salvation cast

According to the news, Helena Bonham Carter will be joining Christian Bale for the fourth installment of the Terminator movies.

Apparantly she's not going to be a major player in the film, but will have a pivotal role.