Johnny Depp is Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter


The cast for the next Tim Burton movie, a 3-D live-action/CGI animated version of Alice In Wonderland, was announced today and in keeping with the perfect movie partnership they discovered 18 years ago, Johnny Depp will be playing the Mad Hatter. 

If any story for a movie is appropriate to be filmed in 3-D, it would be Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  The live-action/CGI is the method used in the recent Angelina Jolie movie Beowulf and it’s a good combination of animation and live acting for the fantasy and allegory of the classic “children’s” book.  Disney is still the distributor, but you can bet with Burton at the helm, it won’t be your mother’s Alice!

Depp and Burton have been one of the best pairings in popular cinema since they teamed up for Edward Scissorhands in 1990.  Ed Wood, in ’94, was the beginning of crazy, Depp brilliance, it just wasn’t quite appreciated yet and flopped at the box office.  Burton’s darkness and Depp’s quirky intesity played perfectly together in Sleepy Hollow, breathing new life and interest into a much played story.  And while Depp’s Willie Wonka was a little creepy, Burton’s dark but colorful rendering of his Chocolate Factory was captivating.  Sweeney Todd was just genius, from both of them.  Even Corpse Bride was intriguing and fun to look at, whether you’re into animated films or not.

It pretty much went without saying when Burton signed on for this project that Depp would take the Mad Hatter role, but now it’s official.  Also official is Mia Wasikowska, a Heath Ledger memorial scholarship recipient for up and coming Australian actors, as Alice, and Matt Lucas, of Little Britain and Little Britain USA, doing double as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Alice in Wonderland is currently in pre-production and is scheduled for release in March 2010.

Information from IMDB and Reuters

Photo credit: Fame Pictures and Lenny’s Alice in Wonderland Site

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13 Responses to “Johnny Depp is Tim Burton’s Mad Hatter”

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  1. Larissa says:

    great news indeeed!
    can´t wait for the movie!!!!!

  2. geronimo says:

    Ok, Johnny as The Mad Hatter, brilliant, but Matt Lucas as Tweedledum/Tweedledee is just inspired!! So nice also to see that the Heath Ledger Scholarship is providing opportunities for new talent.

  3. RAN says:

    Now THIS is a movie I would pay to see in the theater. I pretty much love to watch Johnny Depp in any movie – even sat through the last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies (not nearly as good as the first one).

    Count me in 😉

  4. vdantev says:

    Oh, good casting call !!

  5. Prissa says:

    Excellent!!! I love J. Depp and it seems he and Tim Burton have good working chemistry. Can hardly wait!!

  6. elisha says:

    Sweet, sweet, sweet, sweeeeetttt, SO EFFING SWEEEEEEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😀 😀 😀

  7. Kaiser says:

    Yeah, the Burton/Depp relationship is so amazing …

    Who will play Alice? They should get that actress from American Dreams & that movie Prom Night…whose name I can’t remember…

  8. geronimo says:

    Mia Wasikowska (as above) is Alice. See on IMDb.

  9. Kaiser says:

    Whoops. 😳 I missed that part Geronimo!

    I was just overwhelmed with lust for The Depp!

  10. JaundiceMachine says:

    I’m going to have to find me a special bag of smokables before March 2010.

  11. livelovejdepp! says:

    obviously… i am dieing to see this movie. i am dieing to meet jdepp. i am dieing to see any of his other movies coming out too! ugh. i cannot wait any longer! I LOVE JDEPP WITH ALL MY HEART<33333333!

  12. kitten says:

    im soooo behind the times. im so happy for jonny’s life accomplishments but the significant other is just tearing me apart. it’s just a faze of coarse but in the mean time this knife wont stop jabbing my heart. i truly love who this guy is and if i could get the chance to connect with him mind, body and spirit i would take that journey in a heart beat. thats cruel when he already has kids w/ his love but emotions always over rule logic…