Director Tim Burton’s 2010 “Alice in Wonderland” earned over one billion worldwide for Disney. With any hit, it’s best to strike while the anvil is hot. Disney is planning to advance the tale of Alice and the Mad Hatter by developing a sequel. The studio has hired dependable and award winning screenwriter Linda Woolverton to pen the script.
Woolverton has worked for the studio on various projects over the years including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King,” “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and the upcoming “Maleficent.” She also made contributions to the animated features “Mulan,” and “Aladdin.” Woolverton based the “Alice in Wonderland” film on Lewis Carroll’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass.
The storyline for the sequel is being kept under tight wraps, but here is the plot for the first film.
Alice, an unpretentious and individual nineteen-year-old, is betrothed to a dunce of an English nobleman. At her engagement party, she escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage and falls down a hole in the garden after spotting an unusual rabbit. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called “Underland,” she finds herself in a world that resembles the nightmares she had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens and knights, and frumious bandersnatches. Alice realizes that she is there for a reason–to conquer the horrific Jabberwocky and restore the rightful queen to her throne.
“Alice in Wonderland” debuted in theaters on March 5, 2010. It went on to win Academay Awards for Art Direction and Costume Design. The film stars Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Michael Sheen, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse, Timothy Spall, Marton Csokas, Tim Pigott-Smith, and John Surman. Richard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd, and Jennifer Todd produced the feature, while Linda Woolverton wrote the screenplay based on the books written by Lewis Carroll. The film was directed by Tim Burton.
Source: Variety, IMDb