After trudging for years through the Dimension quagmire, the adaptation of EA’s bizarro vidgame Alice will finally head back through the looking glass and into the camera lens.

The flick is now set up at Universal (which is becoming quite a habitat for low-to-mid budget genre flicks) with Texas Chainsaw Massacre helmer Marcus Nispel using his mouse and WASD configuration to maneuver Alice around the screen.  Sarah Michelle Gellar again refuses to stray from her monster-fighting notoriety to play the titular lass, a recent orphan who must escape from a loony bin and return to the freaky Wonderland and, using an arsenal of transmogrified toys, stop the tyranny of the Queen of Hearts.

The game, an outlandish extension of the trippy Lewis Carroll tale with darkly imaginative designs and wonky controls, was the brainchild of game guy American McGee, whose greatest (or perhaps only) talent may actually be transforming his name into an above-title brand.  A story treatment was done years ago by Charlie’s Angels scribe John August, while writers Erich and Jon Hoeber turned out the full script.  A pre-Cursed Wes Craven was long attached to direct, with Natalie Portman once on the wish list for the lead role.

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