Are you psyched to see Captain Jack Sparrow as a real-life gangster? Johnny Depp plays an infamous criminal in Michael Mann's Public Enemies, which opens tomorrow. But in a world where giant robots draw huge crowds, "do audiences want to see Depp as a fairly realistic, non-fantasy version of Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger?"

That's the question asked by Anne Thompson, a veteran industry analyst. She describes the movie as only "fitfully engaging ... often flat as a pancake." She says that Michael Mann's "biggest misstep here is the same as the Wachowskis with Speed Racer. His pursuit of what interests him formally may leave audiences behind." Like David Fincher's Zodiac and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Mann's own Collateral and Miami Vice, Public Enemies was shot on high-definition video. Thompson claims: "When moviegoers watch a period film, no matter how authentically recreated, they aren't expecting it to look like this. There's something jarring about the way Public Enemies shoves us into the past."

I don't know about you, but I could use a good shove now and again. I've enjoyed Mann's last two films, and the trailers for Public Enemies have done a good job of whetting my appetite. The cast, including Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, and Billy Crudup, looks solid. I don't have any preconception about how period films should look -- I want a good, well-told story with interesting characters. How about you? Do you have certain expectations about how films set in the past should look? Do you want to see Johnny Depp as a "fairly-realistic, non-fantasy" bank robber?

Some more concept art from Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland film has arrived online, courtesy of the French website, The Art of Disney. Some of the art you'll remember from the recent USA Today spread, but then there's other stuff -- like Alice's trip through the giant mushroom patch -- that we haven't yet seen. I attempted to translate the French text on the site (if you speak French, feel free to correct me here), and I believe it talks about how this film will be a continuation of the classic novel, with Alice traveling back to Wonderland 10 years after her original trip.

Directed by Tim Burton, and starring folks like Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Matt Lucas, Christopher Lee, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman and newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice, the film will be a mixture of live-action and animation, and will arrive in theaters on March 5, 2010.

We've added a few of the images to our Alice in Wonderland gallery below, and you can scope out the rest over at The Art of Disney.

[via AICN]

A new adaptation (I refuse to use the word remake here) of Fahrenheit 451 has been in the works for ten years now. I was very excited by the news that Mel Gibson was planning it as a Braveheart follow-up, as it seemed like that would mark a new and serious phase of his directing career. I wish that was something I could have been right about.

Frank Darabont was the next one to take it on, and he's been attached to it since 2001, rewriting Terry Hayes' script and being delayed by everything from Indiana Jones IV, Mission Impossible III, The Mist, and Law Abiding Citizen. SciFi Wire caught up with Darabont at the Saturn Awards, and the director / writer declared that it was really time to get on with it already ... and that it might actually get underway this time, depending on whether or not the Big Name Actor he wants signs on.

"Fahrenheit is the thing I'm trying to get up next, which is casting-dependent, so it's one of those. I'm out to somebody at the moment, fingers crossed, because, boy, do I want to make that movie. I'm not giving up. I'll die in the traces before I don't make that movie ... It's not one of those movies that are vastly expensive by any contemporary standard, but money is still money, and it's of a price that requires somebody that will justify that investment. This is definitely going to be more than The Mist, so those other considerations do come into play."

You can go crazy wondering just who that Big Actor who can pull in the money and box office might be. Could it be someone that rumors have long attached, like Tom Hanks (Darabont's pick for years), Brad Pitt, or Tom Cruise? Or could we be looking at someone newly bankable, like Johnny Depp?

This week we've got more to look forward to than just Public Enemies. According to USAToday, a collection of concept art and publicity images for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland will start wallpapering movie theaters. And they're a lot better than the blurry Hatter pic and first concept pieces!

Luckily, we won't have to die of impatience to see them, because the site included all the images -- a bunch of huge concept pictures that you can drag your mouse around to explore (like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum), our first official peek at Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, plus our beloved royalty: Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen and Anne Hathaway's White Queen. The leaked Hatter pic doesn't do the full-color version justice, with Depp rocking a killer clown look, and Hathaway looks excellent. But Bonham Carter really takes the cake (and coolest bobblehead ever prize) with her digitally swelled noggin and heart-pursed lips. (Check it out in the gallery below.)



In this incarnation, Alice is a 17-year-old girl who flees a snooty party when she learns that she's about to be proposed to. She follows a white rabbit down a hole, and re-enters Wonderland. It's been ten years since that first visit, and she doesn't remember a thing.

Alice in Wonderland is scheduled to hit screens on March 5, 2010. Excited yet?

UPDATE: Movies.ie discovered the first image of Matt Lucas as both Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Check it out in the gallery above and in larger form over at Movies.ie. [via Slashfilm]

Mere days ago I passed on the report that Disney was making The Lone Ranger their priority and pushing back Pirates, which wasn't too surprising since Ranger had a director and Pirates didn't. Well, belay all that, because ComingSoon caught up with Jerry Bruckheimer, who assured Jack Sparrow fans that a fourth installment was just around the corner, and suggested that Ranger had stalled out for the moment.

When it comes to the masked man, there's no hunt for a lead, and Bruckheimer & Co. are essentially waiting to hire a director, and for Disney to hit the gas on the whole thing. Despite all reports, Mike Newell is not attached to the chair because he's still hard at work on Prince of Persia -- and frankly, Disney could be waiting to see how that flies before signing him onto another franchise maker.

But Pirates, well, that's a sure thing. "It's a great franchise for [Disney] and for us, too," Bruckheimer said. "We love the character and Johnny was really excited about coming back to Captain Jack. He certainly is interested in Tonto, but Disney's priority is to get Pirates made first. You never know what's going to happen, but they would like it." Franchise scribes Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott (who are also writing Ranger) are scribbling a script as you read this, one that Bruckheimer promises is "funny" and a "whole new way of going."

Well, we know where we're going -- weighing anchor and heading back to sea instead of riding off into the sunset. As someone who enjoyed the Pirates franchise, I'm pleased we're going back so soon (especially if they get Geoffery Rush back) but it's always deflating when something fresh gets stuck spinning its wheels.

I was just watching Monsters, Inc this past week, and wondering why it belonged to Pixar's no sequel club ... and guess what's in the works now? Dedicated Disney blogger Jim Hill visited this year's Licensing International Expo, and talked to the fine people who were representing Disney and Pixar, and buying up licensing rights.

Reportedly, Pete Docter (fresh off his success with Up) is planning to return to Monstropolis and helm a sequel to his previous Pixar effort, Monsters, Inc. Obviously, story details are shrouded in secrecy, but they've got Cars 2 and Toy Story 3 in the works, it's not much of a stretch to believe they'd revisit Mike and Sully. While it's a delightfully complete film, it's also a wonderful world, and I'd like to go there again.

Hill also reports that Disney is really focusing its efforts on The Lone Ranger, and are hoping to have it in theaters by Summer 2011. As you may remember, Mike Newell was hired to direct, and Johnny Depp is set to play Tonto.
Intent on launching a Ranger franchise, they've pushed back Jack Sparrow's, and are now planning to release the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment to a tenative date of Summer 2012. Both franchises offer a dose of Depp, so the Pirates fanbase should be pretty happy with that. Frankly, I'm willing to trade tricorns just to know just who they cast as that masked man ....

Though it would never ever happen in a million years (we wish and hope and pray), it's still fun to play around with image software to see what a live-action movie based on the animated TV show The Simpsons would look like if it starred a bunch of today's hottest actors and actresses. Australian graphic artist (and Cinematical reader) Brad Anderson created this project as a way to promote his new graphic design business, and I have to say he did a pretty good job finding celebrity images and then tweaking them to fit the Simpsons mold. Can you guess who is who just from looking at the image above? Go ahead and try, I'll give you a moment ...

Give up?

Here's the cast: Homer (George Clooney), Marge (Cate Blanchett), Bart (Ewan McGregor), Lisa (Reese Witherspoon), Maggie (Jennifer Aniston), Otto (Johnny Depp), Krusty (Vince Vaughn), Ned Flanders (William H. Macy), Moe (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Burns (Willem Dafoe), Millhouse (Dustin Hoffman), Mr. Smithers (Stephen Colbert) and Chief Wiggum (Ricky Gervais). We posted the Simpsons family in the gallery below, along with a larger version of the image up top. Head over to Brad's site to view the rest, and throw this guy some business if you're looking for a graphic designer. For the love of god, he's a Simpsons fanboy! Pay the man!

You know, there really isn't any point complaining about Hollywood remaking old TV shows into movies -- why, you may ask? Well, mainly because it seems like it's going to happen no matter what we do. So while I understand when fans get a little bent out of shape when their favorite show is next in line for a 're-imagining'; for the life of me, I don't understand why anyone would feel the need to get all protective over 21 Jump Street. Last year the news broke that Jonah Hill was writing an adaptation of the cult TV show, and immediately there was an outcry that he would be turning their beloved series into a comedy. But, for fans of the teen cop drama, there is still hope, because in a recent interview with Complex, Hill gave an update on his remake and told them that "[Sony execs said] they were gonna let me make my kind of movie-an R-rated, insane, Bad-Boys-meets-John Hughes-type movie-and I told them the second they don't, I'm not gonna be involved anymore," -- and Hill has proven already that he has no qualms about walking away from projects that aren't working for him.

After the jump; so what exactly does Hill have planned for his Jump Street remake?

Oh, what might have been! Alison Lohman gives a terrific performance as the cursed loan officer Christine Brown in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, which opens tomorrow. If not for the vagaries of scheduling, though, Ellen Page would have played the lead role. Would Page have been any better? We'll never know, but she joins a long list that inspires thoughts of 'What if ...?'

Once upon a time, we might have seen Leslie Howard as the titular Frankenstein and Bela Lugosi as The Monster. Instead, Colin Clive played the good doctor, Boris Karloff got a jump-start on life, and the rest is horror history. Here are seven more recent examples of actors and actresses who were considered for key roles in great horror films ... and the ones who replaced them, listed in chronological order. [Disclaimer: Based on information provided on IMDb's "trivia" pages, so no guarantees on accuracy.] Better? Worse? You decide.

1. Melanie Griffith / Sissy Spacek (Carrie)

Even though she was in her mid-20s, Spacek looks so young and fragile as Carrie that it's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role. Griffith was 18 or 19 and already had made an impression in Night Moves, The Drowning Pool, and Smile when she auditioned to play the telekinetic high schooler. Conveying Carrie's complexities might have been beyond her still-developing skills at that point. The pic above, left, is from Joyride, released the following year.