Well, finally something is *happening* with the Alice film! I”m happy too… I think Sarah will make a fine Alice, especially after her performance in The Grudge.
This was announced in the Hollywood Reporter today…
June 21, 2005
Universal to put Gellar in Wonderland
By Borys Kit and John Gaudiosi
Universal Pictures is making “Alice,” an adaptation of video game “American McGee’s Alice,” with Sarah Michelle Gellar attached to star for director Marcus Nispel.
“Alice” is based on the Electronic Arts game created by American McGee, a lead designer of the “Quake” and “Doom” series of games. EA’s game is based on Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” novels, which are in the public domain.
In the game, Alice has grown up to become a disturbed young woman. After her parents are killed in a fire, Alice returns to Wonderland, a dark and threatening place of looking glasses, mysterious potions, nonsensical tea parties and talking animals, confronting her fears and the wicked Queen of Hearts.
129 responses to “Major Alice Movie News”
AT LAST!
Im concerned: ill be honest.
This director is responsible for films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Very Best of Cher and Janet Jackson. Is any else concerned that his creative vision wont twist this dark wonderland properly? Im afraid its going to turn into a thriller. That witty, dark and somewhat eerie dialogue will be replaced by dumb catch phrases and partially nude versions of alice. That the music will be replaced by tension-building tremelo strings rather than the sweet dark music that it was originally created with. When Hollywood picks up a game idea, it doesnt do the best job in the world of sticking with its original intentions …
Lets just hope it comes out alright- best of luck to you, Alice Film . Ill be keeping my eye on you …
Looks like Fark.com picked up the story and posted a link to this Sun Online article.
I’m glad to see this movie’s production is moving forward!
P.S. Lemme know if the movie people need a Mad Hatter to audition. I got a big nose. =^]
I’m just hoping that it’ll be some good, all things considered about videogame movie adaptions.
I can just imagine all the parents groups who’ll be saying that the movie “perverted” the true Wonderland. Laughably, I can also imagine those same ignorant fools who’ll try to compare this movie with the Disney version (not that I have anything against the Disney one).
I was kinda hoping for Christina Ricci :/
but Sarah is oke in my buffy..er..book 🙂
O.o
I never thought I’d see the day… must’ve been a secret shipment of brains to EA when no one was looking! I don’t suppose you get any hand (or benefit) from this, do you?
Congrats on the news about SMG. Hopefully she will make an “Alice” that is fit for your character.
Just curious, how much input do you get to have in this movie?
Thanks for all the great stuff you put out.
Fantastic news.
yeepee!
I just learned about this flipping through MTV. wow are they stupid, they said Geller would be playing the Queen and not Alice. Otherwise this looks to be awesome. Still one of my favorite games.
Definately something to look forward to.
Not too crazy about SMG. She’s a decent actress, but she just doesn’t look the part. (And she’d also need to pull off the accent.) Still, I’ve got high hopes, and she is pretty adaptable, so I may be pleasently surprised . . .
hey!
congrats on this!
oh joy!
julia
This is AWESOME news I am really excited to see this coming around! As far as SMG goes she has a creepy/horror fan base that will love this, even if people didn’t play the game I think the idea/concept has great potental to strike a cord with tons of people.
If she dies her hair black… Can’t wait 🙂
Congratulations!!, but I dont believe that you are agree with the “Alice” casting :D… I am happy for Marcus Nispel a very good cinematographer who make an exceptional remake from “The Texas Chainsaw Masacre”.
Greetings.
What are your thoughts on the choice of director? I haven’t seen his remake of Texas Chainsaw, so I’m not familiar with his style. Alice is a very delicate balance of storytelling, reinvention and character, so I would hate to see it receive the kind of treatment many games do in Hollywood. A similar thing happened with Alan Moore’s From Hell – because it was a comic it was rather dumbed down into a run of the mill Jack the Ripper story, when it should have been more of a psychological study of the intent of killing and black magic. I hope Alice gets the treatment it deserves…
AT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*fireworks*
I’ll ask the same question as John…
How much input do you get to have in this movie?
Ohn, I guess SMGellar wasn’t the best choice. +___+
She’s too american! ^^”
PS: if anyone’s interested to know a little bit more about the director.. here goes: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1197971/
Whoa awesome, there’s finally going to be a movie for this!! I’ve been hoping for a few years and am so glad finally something’s going to be done about it. Please keep us updated about the movie and more on your work! How is te Oz game coming along by the way? Looking forward to this.
PS: You’re from Hong Kong too? ^_^
That rocks beyond all human belief. And when it comes out, I’m so wearing my Alice costume to go see it. XD
I was gonna wear my Alice costume too to the movie. XD
But stil, I’m SOOOOOOOOOO glad there’s gonna be a movie!! *jumps for joy*
Hmm…well, to tell the truth, I dont really think Sara can do the twisted little 16 year old Alice I know, but who knows? Maybe she can. I’d rather like someone a little…closer to Alice’s age. I’m just sad I didnt get to audition or whatever. Heh, oh well. There’s always summer for home videos…
I’m just not very confident with Sara playing her. I’d rather have Mila, and I’d much, much, much rather have Tim Burton do the directing aside from his Corpse Bride movie, because he’s just that cool, but that’s just my opinion.
How will Sara look with dark hair and sound with a british accent, I wonder? o_o Better not skip over the accent ’cause that’d just be murder.
Phht, I shouldnt complain. I mean after all, I wanted Alice to become a movie, and thank god someone up in heaven listens to me…sometimes anyways. XD I’m going to wear my Alice outfit to school, and to the movies, and I’m going to be like one of the Star Wars junkies and have my bottle of theater blood with me and I’ll splash people with it. Bwaha. XD I’ll throw it on my teachers and on the principal, and I’ll bring my cat around school and draw Cheshire tattoes on him with sharpie. :3 Makin’ big plans over here.
K, time to shut that wide gap on my head I call my mouth.
-Rae
SARAH AS ALICE!! YOU COULDN’T ASK FOR ANYTHING BETTER!
Sarah will probably be okay, but my first two choices would have been Christina Ricci or Thora Birch. Direction I’d have definately gone for Tim Burton, Alexander Cuaron or David Fincher, but I’m sure it may be okay, even though I thought Texas Chainsaw was a pretty bad remake (but I didn’t really like the original anyway). I personally don’t see why American McGee couldn’t have opted to direct.
Anyway, Hopefully Walken plays the role as the Mad Hatter and Jim Carrey plays the Red King.
Cheers, Rob
Alice has to be one of the most thought provoking well made most immersive games I have ever played as I sit here now playing it on nightmare for the 3rd time I read that at last, the film is going forward with SMG as Alice. This sounds awsome as was said before lets hope it has the same feel as the game does!
Thankyou so much American McGee for this wonderfull game, please make a sequal!!!
PS Wasnt Faith from Buffy the one to originally play Alice?
At all, Thora Birch wouldn´t be bad for this, would she? =D
I can see the ideas brewing, and appreciate the comments within. True, Sarah isn’t everyone’s choice to play Alice, but then again, we can’t all expect to see the same actress playing our Alice. It’s as when we read the first book, from Mr. Carol, or when we first played the game from Mr. McGee. We ‘became’ Alice a little bit, each time we read of her adventures, or every time we slashed one of the card guards. We see Alice as we want to see her, but each of us view different characteristics of her.
I think Sarah has the ability of becoming Alice, and could play a good one. I can’t vouch for all her acting roles, but one of her earlier ones, in a show called “swans crossing” portrayed her as a confused and very dark girl. Lets see if she’s perfected this persona now that she’s grown up…
so are you going to be involved in the production at all? Besides you having created the game I mean. You should find out if there is any way that you will be allowed to at least have SOME input on the movie itself.
dammit, they better do it justice….i have played this game for years, and if they f it up, ill personally drive to everyones house and have ‘words’ with them. im not a big smg fan. if she winds up doing it, she better play the game and do it right. i would like to volunteer for any part you need filled in this movie *hint*hint*hint*. i haved hoped and dreamed that this masterpiece would make it to the big screen, and now it will. but as i said…..dammit, they better do it right.
You are going to do voice training with SMG right? Alice sounds like a young Judi Dench, and while I’m not expecting that I do expect her to sound English. Have her be Alice, not Buffy, or SMG, but Alice. Does that make sense? I’m kinda ranting a little, but I’m afraid this movie will be bad and I don’t want it to be. I want to like it. It won’t be hard to make it good really. Just prepare, like they did in Chicago. Um…and I know suggesting people to cast never works, but may I suggest Jason Flemyng for the Cheshire Cat? He has the right sort of cattish timbre and tone to his voice.
Okay I’m gonna go now. I think Thora Birch would be better for Alice, but it was up to you and all….it WAS up to you, right?
I’m excited. At least the casting drew weren’t byest to looks. If we cast on looks the movie would suck. I’m positive Christina Ricci is a great acctress but as for playing Alice, a sweet girl TURNED dark, I can’t see it working. SMG works because she can act innocent when nessacary. I’m so totally exicted.
Hey, not to be lame but where can I audition for an extra. I’d love to play an insane child. <3 ZoMbIe!?
Rev.Dodgson would turn in his grave!
I was just wondering what will this movie be rated? Please say PG-13!!! And are you going to dye Sarah Michelle Gellar’s hair brown? Sorry for so many question!!! Umm so talk to ya later! Bye!
I guess Gellar would make a great alice, but.. she better work in her accent … I’m looking forward to see the chesire cat 🙂 I just hope it doesn’t turn in to a thriller, but my guess is it won’t if hte story sticks to the game. nice work 😉
I think SMG will do a decent job as Alice, I must admit I agree that Tim Burton would have been a better choice and I personally think Natalie Portman would have been a better Alice. But I am a Buffy fan and I have high hopes for SMG and for this movie. It’s about time they quit talking about making this great game into a movie and actually did it!
glad to hear the movie is moving along, finally. i would have picked eliza dushku for alice instead of SMG but she did look pretty “alice” liek in that stone temple pilot video. hmm this might be better than i first thought.
This game is just so damn good…I can’t wait to see the flic! It was killer PLAYING the game…I don’t know how I’m going to just sit and watch. Gellar’s awesome, no doubt. She’s got moxie, baby!
It’s gotta be good, it’s gotta be gritty. Now what about the rest of the cast? Walken as the Jabberwocky? Tom Petty as the Mad Hatter…sure it’s been done, but not with good effects…
wow. I’m jargin’ flipped about this project! the game in itself was so theatrical, i can’t wait to see SMG as Alice. I am an avid fan of Lewis’ work, and to see the fairy tales twisted into dark stories is awesome. (snow white: tale of terror…good film) well. I must go. – H
I am ecstatic about the new Alice movie. YIPEE!! I am an avid Buffy fan but I SMG wasn’t exactly who I had in mind as Alice. I was thinking someone more like Kiera Knightley or Mena Suvari even Emily Browning. Oh Well, maybe SMG will suprise me with her incredible acting skills.
Will Alice end up mutilated?
We too are slightly alarmed. As already pointed out, the director-to-be (as of what we know now) is the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, your archetypal horror/slasher/thriller film with little merit and too much fornication. It seems he’s done very little directing, and if Alice is to flow in the same channel of what he’s already produced, it will indeed become cheesey, featuring blood, guts, and nudity just for the sake of blood, guts, and nudity. In other words, lots of STD-ridden teens will attend the movie for the sake of appearing “hardcore.”
We have a suggestion for the music – it’d be a really smart move to keep the score that Chris Vrenna churned up for the video game itself. It’s perfectly eerie, with a childhood-gone-awry feel to it. 🙂
Okay…now for the choice of actress. SMG is an actress, of course, and therefore versatile, but there seem to be a few (namely two that spring to mind immediately) others that fit the bill quite a bit…more…well, perfectly. Firstly, there’s Christina Ricci. In Sleepy Hollow, she appeared very childlike (but mature) and very disturbed, both of which are necessary elements of Alice’s character. Secondly, there’s Daveigh Chase, who actually is a young lady (a “child,” if you choose to take it that way) who pulled off a certain infamous, asylum-condemned, vengeful little girl; she was Samara Morgan in The Ring, which, I daresay, was slightly more successful (and worthy of praise) than The Grudge (which nearly everyone identified as a rip-off, already posing a psychological unwillingness to see a movie featuring an actress who was selected on her performance in the aforementioned rip-off).
We’re sorry to sound like we’ve taken too many pills of unhappiness; it’s mainly the fact that we have a deep, personal appreciation for American McGee’s wonderful version of Wonderland that is the game.
Oh, yeah…and the voice of the Cheshire Cat should definitely be the same person who voice-acted for the game…that was great.
Apologies again for any bubble-bursting…this was, after all, a comment.
I think an unknown actress would have been the more artistic choice, but this gives SMG a chance to expand her roles and her name will bring in the viewers. Let’s just hope that the feeling of the game comes through in the film. Good luck.
about time ive been waiting 4 this movie 4 a long time. i will b 1 of the first 2 c it
Christina Ricci would have been my first choice out of the two but oh well.
Its still awesome, can’t wait! ^___^
-marilyn
make johnny depp as the mad hatter. as simple as that.
also, i agree with the above mention mad hatter role being securly in jonny depp’s hands.
Oh god I hope the Movie doesn’t turn out like the Resident Evil movies, ’cause the people who made those movies dederved to be shot while hanged. Other than SMG, who’s going to be the voice of the Chesire Cat and the Rabbit? I think that the original voices would be best, ’cause there’ll be the sense of familierity with the gamers, and plus, the voices rock!
oh yeah !!!!
it’s so great and I really hope that this plan comes true
I was once a big Buffy fan, and I love SMG. I personally think she is a great choice, although I never though of her playing Alice before. I am also pleased with the choice of director. Marcus Nispel did a tremendous job on ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Although, when released on DVD, the directors commentary will be immensely boring…lol
I’m so happy that this video game is finally being turned into a movie. SMG isn’t who I imagined playing this part (I always thought she’d make an awesome queen of hearts), but Im sure that she will come through. I just hope you dye her hair and give her vivid green contacts. I know Im not supposed to post questions, but I was wondering who else would play the other characters, and if there would be casting calls…
Finally! I’m so excited!