Coverage of Burton Q&A at Comic-Con

/Film has reported on the Q&A with Tim Burton following the showing of the teaser trailer of Alice in Wonderland at Comic-Con:

"In the Q&A, Burton mentioned that it was very difficult for him to get used to shooting with green screen. He mentioned that he stuck to a fast and involved method of shooting with his actors to help maintain a sense of reality. Burton also mentioned that they didn’t use much motion capturing in the film—instead, they stuck to animating the digital characters by hand. Overall, he felt the most difficult aspect of making this film is the process he’s currently stuck in, editing and putting together all of the many pieces of the film.

"In contrast to many other Alice adaptations, Burton mentioned that the film will utilize elements from the two Alice books (Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass), as well as reference smaller material found within those books such as the poem Jabberywocky.

"Towards the end of the panel, Burton unveiled Johnny Depp as a surprise guest. He didn’t stick around for too long, but did reveal that he unfortunately can’t see films in 3D, so he’ll probably never get to experience this film fully."

"Alice" Teaser Trailer in Hi-Def

You can now officially see the teaser trailer for
Alice in Wonderland in high definition:

High Definition:

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_1080.mov

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_720.mov



Quicktime:

http://wdmp-wdsmp.rd.llnw.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_High.mov



iPod:

http://wdmp.rd.llnwd.net/wdsmp/AIW/Teaser1/AIW_Teaser1_cc_iPod.m4v.zip

Mad Hatter Concept Art

More concept art from character designer Michael Kutsche -- this time of the Mad Hatter.

Red Queen Concept Art

Character designer Michael Kutsche has posted a piece of concept art he made of the Red Queen for Alice in Wonderland.

On the DeviantArt page, Kutsche describes his experience with working on the film:


"In 2008 I had the opportunity to do a lot of the character designs for Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland".


I was very lucky to meet Tim Burton as well as Ken Ralston from Sony Imageworks, I've been working directly at the film set in Plymouth and later on at the set in LA, it's been a great time working for one of my favourite directors.
Seeing Johnny Depp's performance was also mindblowing, he's amazingly talented.

Since some images have already been released, including an image of Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, I thought it could be nice to show the initial concept art.
I had a very quick sketch by Tim Burton to start with, the final costume that Helena is wearing is Colleen Atwood's work, she's a fantastic academy award-winning costume designer.
The artwork is completely done with Corel Painter X.

My IMDb page: [link]

Enjoy!"

"9" Sneakers

For the Burton collecting fanatic, or if you just need new shoes, Pony presents these limited edition sneakers. The shoes are modeled after the stitched-together burlap characters in 9. The second image is of the sockliner.

New Red Queen Image

A new image of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and her court has surfaced online.

"Alice in Wonderland" Trailer!

It's here!

EDIT: Looks like it's been removed from the Interwebs... for now...

EDIT 2: Wait -- it's on Facebook!

"9" Comic-Con Panel

On Friday from 2:30-3:30 pm. Focus Features presents an exclusive look inside director Shane Acker’s animated fantasy epic 9 with Shane Acker, Tim Burton, Timur Bekmambetov, and actors Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly. See them live in Hall H!

New Red Queen Image and Trailer Contest

/Film has a new image of Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen from Vanity Fair. There's also a description of the trailer for Alice in Wonderland which might be shown at Comic-Con this week.

Also, Facebook has an interesting contest: become a fan of one of the three characters from Alice in Wonderland. Those who became fans of the character who gets the most followers will be able to see the exclusive Alice trailer on Thursday at 4:00 PM!

The characters to choose from are:

The Mad Hatter
The Red Queen
The White Queen

(At this point, the Mad Hatter is winning.)

Or, if you'd rather wait, the teaser trailer for Alice in Wonderland will be attached to G-Force in theaters. The teaser will be in 3D.

Art Gallery on Burton's Website

You can now explore some of Tim Burton's artwork -- familiar and new -- at TimBurton.com, with Stainboy as your guide!

Those signed up can see even more artwork in a private gallery.

"Semi-Trailer" of "Alice" at Comic-Con

Tim Burton has said that the very first public footage of Alice in Wonderland will be shown at Comic-Con this week -- in the form of a "semi-trailer."

"[It's] a kind of a semi-trailer," Burton said. "It’s where we’re at at the moment. There’s not a lot of footage to show."

Burton gave more information to MTV News. The director commented on the challenge of incorporating live-action, 3D, motion capture, and various forms of animation in several sequences. "It's a strange process we’re dealing with," he explained. "We're using a mix of techniques. If you picked them apart, each technique has been done before. We’re mixing them up, in a way."

"I wish we had more footage to show," Burton added. "It's a real mysterious puzzle that's frightening and exciting at the same time."

The director also explained why he took on the project, based on his interest in the source material and his disappointment with past cinematic adaptations. "The thing about it is it’s a series of stories," he said. "For me that's always been a problem with the movie versions of it. It's always been a girl going from one weird adventure to another, and for me it didn’t have much of an impact in the versions I’d seen before. Everyone’s crazy. We tried to take the 'Alice' mythology and characters and make a story out of it and be true to the spirit of what 'Alice' is about."



Burton also faulted past imaginings of the Hatter. "When you look at most interpretations, everything is pretty one-note," he said. "Everybody is crazy. With him, we are always trying to find a subtext and layer to it so it's rooted in humanity to some degree—something deeper than just being nuts." We shall see how Johnny Depp presents the Mad Hatter on March 5th, 2010.

Despite his crazy experience at a Superman panel at Comic-Con during the 1970s, the director is looking forward to showing dedicated fans a sample of Wonderland. "The great thing about it is the people are passionate and that’s what you want," he said. "That's why you do what you do."

In the spirit of the origins of the pop culture convention, Burton also talked comic books and comic book movies -- namely Batman. He gave his opinions on the recent Christopher Nolan blockbusters based on the Dark Knight.

"These [movies] are great. When I got involved with [the Batman franchise] many years ago things were ripe for a different interpretation," Burton told MTV News. "When you look at character novels and [regenerated characters], they're such strong things that they can take reinvention."

"At the time for the '89 'Batman' it felt different at the time to make it darker," he added. "That still is the trend to this day. At some point maybe it'll go back to Adam West!"

New "Alice" Pic

We have a new image from Alice in Wonderland: It's Alice -- in Wonderland!

Picture from /Film.

"9" Code Decoded

So what is the secret behind this mysterious 9 poster? An exclusive video clip featuring excerpts from the movie and a few words from Tim Burton!

Burton on "9," Comic-Con

MTV News spoke with Tim Burton about his coming to Comic-Con next week to discuss Alice in Wonderland, 3D cinema, and the animated science-fiction movie 9. Burton will visit San Diego's Comic-Con on Friday, July 24th, and offered his memories of going to Comic-Con when he was in college.

"I went when I was a student at CalArts," he told MTV News. "I'll never forget this, and it’s probably why I haven’t been back since, because it was so terrifying. They had a slideshow for the original 'Superman,' and in the middle of it some fan gets up and just very angrily goes, 'Superman would not change into his costume on the ledge of a building! You are destroying the mythology of Superman!' And he got up and walked out, followed by other people. That scared the s--t out of me! So I haven’t been back since then."

"It'll be interesting to see how it's changed over the years," said Burton.

He then talked about 9, created and directed by Shane Acker. Burton became a producer on the feature when he saw Acker's original short film, and became very excited about it.

"I just love the texture and stop-motion feel to it," said Burton. "I know animation is broadening its horizons but this just felt different... I liked the world that [Acker] created and the texture. It felt like a different type of animated film. The visuals were helping to create the story. I just felt very in tune with the look and feel of it."



"Our goal as producers—if you see someone you like, you don’t want to suppress them — the goal was to create an environment where he can do his thing," Burton continued. "My attitude is always to give suggestions and if he uses them fine, if not, okay. We wanted this to be grounded and slightly realistic in the similar vein to stop-motion, let the film breathe. We wanted it to have mystery and let it breathe."

And how much will fans be able to see of the film if they attend Comic-Con this July? Burton didn't say much, but teased, "Probably a sequence or two."


Images from Focus Features.

Intriguing New "9" Poster

A unique new poster for 9 has made its debut. The title of the film is not directly stated, but the bottom of the poster says, "TXT 'READER' TO 4FOCUS."

The White Queen and the Dormouse?

Empire brings us a new image that has surfaced from Wonderland: Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, with what might be the Dormouse in her hand.

There will apparently be many actual animal characters in the film, as the other Empire character photos suggest.

Tim Burton at Comic-Con

On July 23rd, Tim Burton will be on a panel with Robert Zemeckis, Sean Bailey, Steve Lisberger, and moderator Patton Oswalt. The "Disney: 3D Panel" is presented by Walt Disney Pictures. The panelists will be discussing the upcoming Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol, and Tron. The discussion will take place on Thursday, July 23rd at Comic-Con, from 11:00 am until 12:30 pm, in Hall H.

New "Alice" Character Pics

Planet Disney and /Film have provided more character images from Alice in Wonderland from Vanity Fair magazine. See Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Mia Wasikowska as Alice, and Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen below:

Sheen on White Rabbit

Like Stephen Fry giving information on the Chesire Cat, Twitter has provided some details on Alice in Wonderland once again -- this time from Michael Sheen:


@michaelsheen Are you just the voice of the white Rabbit in Tim Burton's Alice? Or will you be it physically?about 5 hours ago from TweetDeck in reply to michaelsheen
nessdm
Venessa DM
Footer

# @nessdm Just voice. All the animal characters are cg or stop motion.9 minutes ago from web in reply to nessdm
#


Read Michael Sheen's Twitter here.

1 from "9"

The AWN Showcase has some artwork of the old leader of the tribe of ragdoll creatures from 9: 1, voiced by Christopher Plummer.