Malice won't have its way with Sunderland anymore. The BBC reports that the upcoming, and long-delayed new take on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Malice in Sunderland, will not be filmed on Wearside, and it has got a new name -- Malice in Wonderland.

The film was hoping for a £250,000 bit of cash from the area, but the region's film group said that their cash goes to talent from the region. So, with that hefty bit of change biting the dust, the film will now be shot in the Southend with a new title. However, producer Albert Martinez-Martin says that the name change is only due to the play on words: "The title was also changed as everyone in the UK would know Sunderland but outside UK they wouldn't. I also thought two puns in one title were one too many." Do you really need to know what Sunderland is to enjoy, or recognize the title?

I don't believe the hype that 3-D will dominate the movie world in the near future, but it does seem like a lot of movies are using the technology these days. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Disney will release the animated feature Bolt, (once called American Dog) in Digital 3-D next year. Bolt features the voices of John Travolta, Woody Harrelson, and Susie Essman (who had better curb her Curb Your Enthusiasm language!). It tells "the story of a TV star dog named Bolt (Travolta) who is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York, where he begins a cross-country journey through the real world." Chris Williams directs the film.

Disney has been one of the biggest supporters of 3-D. In recent years, Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons, and the sweet, sweet Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas were all released in the format. Speaking of Nightmare, as Monika told you earlier this month, Tim Burton has signed to produce and direct 3-D versions of Alice in Wonderland and his own terrific short film, Frankenweenie for Disney. On the opposite end of the cool spectrum, Disney's next 3-D release is the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour, which will play in theaters Feb. 1-7. Start scalping those tickets now!

Sarah Michelle Gellar's Alice, which will focus on a damaged, adult version of the girl in baby blue, is about to get some solid competition from the company that made the original story so darned popular in the first place. Variety has reported that the great Tim Burton has signed on to direct Alice in Wonderland for Walt Disney Studios -- the same company that helped him bring Ed Wood and The Nightmare Before Christmas to the big screen. But that's not all -- when he's done with that, he'll put together a feature-length movie based on his 1984 short film Frankenweenie -- the story of a pet dog brought back to life by his owner. Turns out the Frankenweenie rumor from way back at the beginning of October is indeed true.

Man, I can only begin to imagine what Burton can cook up with both of these projects. The two films will combine live action and performance capture for a big 3D release, as is just all the rage these days. The Alice script is based on the Lewis Carroll classic, as opposed to Disney's treatment first treatment of it, and was written by The Lion King scribe Linda Woolverton. Once Sweeney Todd is all said and done, Burton will film his version of Wonderland in early 2008, and aims to wrap it up in May. However, for some reason, Variety is still calling it a pre-strike project.*

After dealing with hearts, bunnies, tea parties, and all the wonderful Wonderland shenanigans, Burton will give the same 3D treatment to his 23-year-old story. I would hope he's going to pen the film himself; however, that hasn't been confirmed. So, now the question is: who will Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp play?

*Variety has removed this comment from their post.

With the wacky sounds of a Very Merry Unbirthday, I will always believe that the wonderful Ed Wynn is the Mad Hatter. Oh, how I love that insane, toy-making tea party man. But I guess if I had to deal with someone else taking on the role, there's probably not much better than Alan Cumming. (He's practically channeling Wynn in the picture to the right.) The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the zany actor is producing a new flick called Hatter, along with the film's writer James Killough and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels executive producer Angad Paul. Not only that, but he's re-teaming with X2 co-star Rebecca Romijn to do it.

The pic is said to be based on the Mad Tea Party scene from Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not quite sure how that is. In such a strange casting move (she said tongue-in-cheek), Cumming is going to play Matt Hatter -- "a hedonistic fashion designer," while the ex-Stamos will be his adversary, Alice Allyson -- "a journalist who knows about his shady past." So far, it sounds like all they took from the scene are spoofs on the names, unless they're going to throw in some sort of bizarre tea party into the middle, or perhaps an unbirthday.

This is also looking to be a new running theme for Cumming -- taking on classic characters/people. He's got his stint as Glitch in the television miniseries Tin Man, and just voiced Hitler in the upcoming Jackboots on Whitehall. But that's all we have for you right now on this weird Wonderland redo; however, we should have more information soon, as the production is set to film in the spring of 2008. On top of all this, Cumming will receive the Golden Apple Award at this year's Big Apple Film Festival during the opening night screening of his film, Suffering Man's Charity, on November 14 at Tribeca Cinemas in NYC.

While the news isn't all too surprising, apparently Disney is fast-tracking a sequel to their spring hit Wild Hogs. Not only that, but they're also prepping a whole lot more including a mysterious Alice in Wonderland project that may or may not be live action. The Disney Enquirer has unveiled their Spring edition of Disney Domains, showing us all the various domain names Disney has registered as of late. And yes, among them are WildHogs2-Movie.com, WildHogs2DVD.com and WildHogsMovie2.com.

Along with Wild Hogs 2, there's this Alice: Through the Looking Glass flick. A number of different domains were registered, all of them either including the name 'Alice' or the words 'through the looking glass.' Is Disney simply planning a direct-to-DVD sequel for Alice, or could this be something bigger (ie: Pixar bigger)? Some other films registered are: 9 Lives of John, Aftermath, I Hate Valentine's Day (a new Nina Vardalos flick), Link, Manhunt, Mercenary, Pool Rats and a bunch more. Aside from straight movie domains, Disney also registered a ton of Buy N Large Ultra Store domains. No, the Mouse House is not looking to open up their own super mega store. Apparently, this one has to do with Pixar's Wall-E -- Buy N Large is a company (headed up by one Fred Willard) hired to clean up Earth 700 years into the future. I imagine Disney will have some fun with this one once it becomes time to start promoting Wall-E, due out in 2008. Feel free to scope out the list, and let us know if you find anything else worth mentioning.

[via filmick]

Most of us grew up with Disney characters. We'd anxiously await the release of the next video tape and then imagine ourselves in worlds with singing dwarves, tiny glass slippers and fairy godmothers, while poison apples, wicked stepsisters and sinister spinning wheels loomed on the horizon. Now, through the eye of Annie Leibovitz, the oft-remembered, animated scenes are getting further life through edited photography and celebrity re-creations.

The famous photographer was nabbed by Disney as part of their Year of a Million Dreams campaign. Her job -- to create an on-going series of photographs that use notable names to re-create the Disney scenes we know and love. So far, she's doing one hell of a job. The first celebrity to sign on is Scarlett Johansson, who took on the glass slippers for Cinderella's midnight run. Beyond being visually striking, what makes these pictures pop is the mixture of actual photography and digital flair. The actress was shot running down the steps of the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial in New York, and the the rest was re-created. It makes me wonder if a live-action film would work using this technique, because it looks pretty damned great!

Perhaps it seems a bit premature to speculate about the cinematic future of The Looking Glass Wars. After all, the book was only released two weeks ago in the United States, in spite of being a huge hit over in the UK for nearly two years. But the book's author, Frank Beddor, is a film producer (There's Something About Mary), and the book is so clearly written with a film version in mind that it's impossible, while reading it, not to imagine it on the screen.

After all, how many books do you know that have a trailer? And a card game? And a successful comic spin-off? And a soundtrack? And given the enormous success of Harry Potter,and that books like The Golden Compass, Eragon, Inkheart and The Spiderwick Chronicles are being made into films, it doesn't seem much of a reach to think that it's only a matter of time before someone snatches up The Looking Glass Wars.

The book is another in the trend of re-imaginings of classic tales ala Gregory Maguire (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West). Where Wicked (in the book version, at least) turned The Wizard of Oz stories on their ear, though, giving us full-fledged, conflicting political and philosophical systems, characters with hidden motivations and complex alliances, and a plot with some unpredictable twists and turns, The Looking Glass Wars is more of a one-dimensional tale. The premise is that Beddor, after years of painstaking research, has uncovered the truth about Alice Liddell, to whom Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass were dedicated. Alice, the book posits, was really Alyss Heart, princess of Wonderland. Her mother, Queen Genevieve, was violently overthrown by Redd, her psychotic older sister, in a bloody coup staged on the princess' seventh birthday.

With Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest set to hit theaters this weekend, I would look for every other post on Cinematical this week to be in some way related to Johnny Depp. Oh, but it's not our fault -- everyone is talking about the guy. Especially now that Superman is fading into the background, expect all Depp, all the time. Who is Captain Jack Sparrow? Is Captain Jack gay? The real Captain Jack? Why Johnny Depp hates red underwear? Trust me, it's all out there.

The latest in Johnny Depp rumors comes via a very interesting character. It appears Marilyn Manson is dying to get the actor to play a part in his upcoming directorial debut, Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. Speaking to VHI, Manson admitted that he has approached Depp and joked that, if he had to, he'd extort him into playing a role. Of course, we're to assume the rocker was just kidding ... or was he?

Pic is based on the life of Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. Apart from directing the film, Manson has co-written the script, scored it and placed himself in the lead role playing Lewis Carroll. While the flick calls for a variety of special effects, Manson has said they will all be done using a magician, instead of some wicked CGI stuff. Yes, a magician. No, I'm not joking. Personally, I think Depp would be great in a film like this, however, I'm not sure I trust this Marilyn Manson character. He seems a bit weird.

As Martha reported back in August of last year, Marilyn Manson was and is eager to move from guy everyone blames for killing kids through music to guy everyone blames for killing kids through movies. Yes, the one-time controversial rocker is gearing up to direct his first film according to Production Weekly.

The film, you ask? Well, it's called Phantasmagoria - The Visions of Lewis Carroll, and will be based on the life of the Alice in Wonderland author as well as tie in Carroll's famous poem of the same name. Wearing a number of different hats for this one, Manson has also co-written the screenplay (along with Anthony Silva) and will score the film as well as play the author himself.

Oh, it gets so much better - apparently Angelina Jolie is in talks to play the Red Queen, while model Lily Cole is taking on the role of Alice. Okay, am I the only one who thinks this film is going to be absolutely insane? I can only imagine (along with men everywhere, I'm sure) the kinds of outfits Manson will fit Jolie with should she take the part. Yeah, I think I'm looking forward to this one.