Cinematical

Tim Burton has cast the title role in the new adaptation of Alice in Wonderland he's working on for Disney. It is not, as was rumored a couple weeks ago, Ryan Nikole Parker, but it's not anyone more well-known, either. The role has gone to Australian actress Mia Wasikowska -- and holy crap, I have nothing but respect for anyone who can break into Hollywood and retain a name like Mia Wasikowska. Up until now, her only high-profile credits have been as a regular on HBO's In Treatment and in the much-hyped but little-seen killer crocodile flick Rogue. But the 18-year-old has parts in the upcoming Defiance (Edward Zwick's latest pitch to AMPAS) and the Earhart biopic Amelia, so she should be recognizable by the time Alice in Wonderland surfaces.

The film will be a combination of live-action and motion-capture animation, and will be released in digital 3-D -- but what big new movie won't be, these days? It was written by Linda Woolverton, who worked on The Lion King, and it starts shooting in November for a 2010 release.

I'm as big a Tim Burton devotee as you'll find (don't believe me? Find me one other person who will admit to liking the Planet of the Apes remake), so I'll gladly swoon over a Burton version of the Lewis Carroll classic. In fact, this is such an on-the-nose project for Burton that I'm kind of surprised it took him this long to get to it. But I'll take it.