In news that is going to upset the person that started the topic “who thinks Miley Cyrus should play alice?” over on the haphazard and consistently scary IMDB message boards, Tim Burton has found the lead for his upcoming Alice in Wonderland flick. (After spending long periods of meditative time in an isolation chamber, Burton finally came to the realization that Depp can play young, but not THAT young.) The Hollywood Reporter claims that actress Mia Wasikowska is very, very close to stitching up the role of a young girl who falls down a rabbit hole, consumes strange edibles and drinkables that make her grow and shrink, takes advice from insects, and causes havoc in an old Tom Petty video.
Wasikowska (say it with a mouthful of peanut butter crackers) is a young Australian actress best known for her work in the experimental HBO show In Treatment. Though I have HBO, I haven’t watched that series. I wasted my “Why am I watching this?” token on Tell Me You Love Me. She has a few high profile gigs coming up (Defiance, Amelia), and she also appeared in the killer crocodile movie Rogue. A Hilary Swank movie AND a killer croc flick? Sounds like my typical Friday night.
Burton is coming off the critical (but not necessarily box office) hit Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He’s in a weird place project-wise. It seems he only wants to take on projects that have already been movies, plays, or TV shows. Looking over his resume, one misses his 90s material. It’s impossible to think that Depp won’t be involved in some way – those two are peas in a (Icha)pod. The Mad Hatter really seems like the Depp role here. Or maybe this will be his Norbit moment, and Depp will play all of the other characters (The Caterpillar, The March Hare, The White Rabbit, The Tom Petty, etc.) that fill-in Lewis Carroll’s trippy tale.