With The Flickcast’s own Shannon Hood covering all the excitement at SXSW this week yours truly is stepping in to take over box office duty. Don’t worry all you Hood fans, I have no doubt that she’ll be back next week, which means I’m only here for one week. That’s something that can’t be said about Alice in Wonderland, however.

Even with mixed reviews, Alice took the top spot again over the weekend. While it dropped 46% drop from last week, the 3D fantasy took in another $62 Million, bringing its total to $208 Million in only two weeks. As Shannon noted last week, this is Tim Burton’s biggest opening and the film is certainly finding an audience.

One concern from reviewers was whether or not audiences would be somewhat disappointed by the 3D aspect of Alice in comparison to Avatar. While Avatar was quite an immersive experience Alice in Wonderland presented more of your traditional 3D environment. It seems movie goers don’t mind the difference and are eager to see Johnny Depp and cast as they romp through Wonderland.

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Wow, I don’t think anybody predicted the massive opening weekend that Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland just had. Audiences scooped up an amazing $116 Million worth of tickets to the film. This is the biggest opening weekend in Tim Burton’s entire career, and despite a critical consensus that this was a very average movie, word of mouth appears to be good.

This also appears to indicate that audiences are embracing the 3D trend. I am very curious if there will be a large drop-off next weekend, because the 3D in Alice was in no way comparable to  the 3D in Avatar. If  Avatar is what people are expecting, they are going to be disappointed.

It is interesting to note that Avatar only opened to $77 Million, but has now grossed over $720 Million. I will be pretty shocked if Alice has any real legs at the the box office, but the totals this morning show me that this movie may be full of surprises.

Brooklyn’s Finest, starring Don Cheadle, Richard Gere, and Ethan Hawke, came in second over the weekend with $13.5 Million.  It played in just under 2,000 theaters, and has a fairly modest budget of $25 Million, so it will likely end up profitable.

Shutter Island made about $13 Million in its 3rd week in release.  It now has exceeded its budget of $80 Million (with $95 Million total), and looks certain to hit $100 Million next weekend.

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Even when he tackles darker subject matter, Tim Burton always manages to bring a touch of whimsy to his films.  On the surface, Alice in Wonderland seems to be the perfect tale for the eccentric filmmaker to put his own spin on. With Alice oscillating wildly between giant and diminutive proportions, two queens vying for control of the land, and anthropomorphic fauna and animals, the tale seems ripe for a wild re-imagining.

Trouble is, Burton leaves the enchantment at home along with warmth and heart. The resulting movie is rather cold, devoid of color and brightness (save for the mad hatter’s shock of orange hair and startling green eyes) and not a lot of fun. I’m not saying that makes it bad, but it was very different from what I was expecting.

In this particular retelling, Alice is a grown woman instead of a little girl. At a large party she learns she is to marry a stodgy bore of a man. She rushes off to be by herself and falls down the rabbit hole into the “underworld.”  There she encounters the characters that we are all familiar with. There is the white rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), the stoned-out-of-his-cocoon caterpillar (Alan Rickman), and of course, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp.)

This version of the  Mad Hatter is a more tragic character with a brutal back story to explain his madness.  I found Depp’s portrayal of the Hatter annoying and frenetic, crazy for the sake of being crazy. He drifts in and out of a heavy Scottish brogue for reasons not immediately clear.  I wish the character had been toned down a bit as I think it would have made him a little more likable.

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While Tim Burton is getting ready to unleash his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland onto the world this Friday, he’s already planning on sinking his producing teeth into another piece of historical fiction. Seth Grahame-Smith, the author behind the cult classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, got his newest historical/horror hybrid released yesterday, in the form of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

The premise is about as black and white as it sounds. In the time during Lincoln’s presidential term, he is forced to wage war against blood-sucking demons before they’re able to bring down the free world. According to Heat Vision, some gentlemen known in the genre have already taken interest.

Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, the producers behind last fall’s 9, will be producing the novel for a big screen adaptation. This fits right into the directors’ current resume, as Bekmambetov got his US popularity from his work on the Russain Night Watch films, and Burton is no stranger to the world of gothic vampire-like scenarios.

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Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is certainly turning heads with every new image and trailer that the film has to offer. Mostly because of how outrageous Burton’s style seems to be with this timeless classic, and of course his continued success when partnering up with Johnny Depp.

Fans of both Depp and Burton will get an eyeful in this new clip that’s been released for the film. In it, we get a glimpse at Depp, while he talks about Burton’s take on the classic. Also, some great shots of Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum, as well as the Cheshire Cat and even Crispin Glover as The Knave of Hearts.

The film also stars Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hatheway, Alan Rickman, Kingdom’s Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, and Mia Wasikowska as the titular Alice.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to see much more from Burton’s wild new world as time draws closer to the March 5th release date. There are also rumors that Disney is buying time during next Sunday’s Super Bowl for an extended trailer, so be sure to get your DVR’s ready!

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Sure, all the news and focus of the internet, right now, is on the new Iron Man 2 trailer which, in my opinion deserves the amount of excitement that it’s inspired. But, that’s not what we’re talking about now. The new trailer for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, is online and gives us a pretty thorough, and spectacular glimpse into Burton’s creation of Wonderland.

We see the White Rabbit, the Red Queen and her main man, The Knave of Hearts, and yes, the Mad Hatter. It looks fantastical, and certainly Burton inspired, if still in that candy-coated look that he’s had on previous film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The film’s synopsis reads as, “19 year-old Alice, returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.” And the trailer gives us glimpses of the Jabberwock, the Mad Hatter’s companions the Dormouse and the March Hare; as well as the Cheshire Cat, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

The film features Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, and Mia Wasikowska as Alice, along with a multitude of others. It’s scheduled for release March 10, 2010, in 3-D and IMAX.

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Excited for the upcoming SyFy adaptation of Lweis Carrol’s classic Alice in Wonderland tale? Well, if so you’re in luck because we’ve got a preview of that two-part drama for you right here. According to the network, this version of the story will be “an entirely new look at “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass.”

For this re-imagined adaptation, writer/director Nick Willing “mines the bizarre ingenuity and twisted logic of Carroll’s work to create a daringly different, boldly colorful and delightfully skewed dreamscape of his own.” Well, that does sound interesting, doesn’t it?

I wonder what Tim Burton would say about that? He’s been known to create a few different and bold dreamscapes himself. Oh well, I guess we’ll get a chance to compare this version with Burton’s when his hits theaters.

Until then, check out the preview for this Alice after the jump. Alice, which features Kathy Bates, Tim Curry,  Colm Meaney and Natasha Calis, premieres this Sunday at 9/8C on SyFy.

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While most film directors are considered “artists”, there are only a few that fit that role to it’s essential definition. Tim Burton is a filmmaker, writer, painter, and photographer. These skills alone could warrant him a feature at most museums, before you even take into account the vast worlds that Burton has created with every one of his films. We were lucky enough to get an exclusive peak at the brand new Tim Burton Exhibit in New York’s Museum of Modern Art sponsored by the SyFy channel, and we were blown away.

Starting with the opening hallway, the very first room lets you into Burton’s twisted Carnival setting, in which black light, several neon paintings, and a single rotating object sits in the center of the room. This alone is enough to make most cheap haunted houses worth it, and the real exhibit hasn’t even started.

The floor then leads to an open room, with Burton’s chronological work in film, sketches, and napkin notes in display along the walls. The artist came in personally to work with the museum on placement of each piece, from wall portrait to some of his sculptures. One that stands out in particular is his Robot Boy sculpture, which is interactive.

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There is lots to be said about what we’ve seen from Tim Burton’s upcoming reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, and most of it is about Johnny Depp’s performance as the Mad Hatter. While that will be a definite selling point for the film, there are still many things that it has to offer, such as the distribution in Disney 3D and IMAX 3D.

The rest of the cast fills out quite nicely, with Anne Hatheway, Helena Bonham Carter (Burton’s wife), Crispin Glover, and Mia Wasikowska joining the cast. Expect this to be about as twisted as the way Lewis Carroll originally imagined it.

The film hits theaters in 3D and IMAX on March 5th, 2010, but you can check out the brand new poster that has hit the web, along with an invitation to join The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter on Facebook. From there, you can become a fan to get major updates on the film and goodies for you to download.

Otherwise, keep it here as we bring you new stuff on Alice In Wonderland in the future, and check out the first full poster for the film after the jump.

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Last month, we brought you an exclusive interview with director/producer Timur Bekmambetov where he talked about his plans for a sequel to last year’s comic book adaptation of Wanted. We also got to speak to the director of such great horror films as Nightwatch and Daywatch about working as producer with Tim Burton on 9, which hits theaters today.

For those unaware, 9 started off as an award-winning animated short, which peaked the interest in a few agents. One of which, happened to be the agent of both Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, who were both eager to bring the project to the big screen as a full length feature.

Check out the video after the jump, as we discuss how 9 came to be, Timur’s journey along the way, and what his initial thoughts were on Shane Acker’s short. Be sure to keep it here in the coming weeks for more with director/producer Timur Bekmambetov.

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We’ve been bringing you news of Shane Acker’s upcoming film 9 for some time now. Previously, we showed you the new poster, the film’s brand new website, some character posters, a brand new clip from the movie and much more. Now, we’ve got even more from the film to share with you, in the form of four brand new pictures depicting various scenes from the film.

These new images give us more insight into just how cool and interesting this film is going to be. They also show us some detail on two of the main characters in this fantasy world and a preview of a pretty scary monster as well. In case its been some time or you don’t actually know, the film concerns the character 9, who finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world where all humans are gone. It is only by chance he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth trying to destroy his kind.

9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must go on the offensive to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them. Be sure to click through for the large versions of these photos.

9, from Focus Features and featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, John C. Reilly and Jennifer Connelly, hits theaters next week on September 9.

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For the past four years, Spike TV has been on the map of cable TV award shows with their annual Scream Awards, giving notice to genres and categories that all other award shows overlook. From comic books to horror films, the Scream Awards have made basic cable award shows fun for the rest of us.

The network just released their list of nominees for this year’s show, which have been chosen by their Advisory Board of Hollywood and Genre Leaders. On the board are known genre names such as Tim Burton, Wes Craven, Roland Emmerich, Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Eli Roth, Zack Snyder, and more.

The voting begins today at Scream.Spike.com so check out the list after the jump. Be sure to tune into Spike TV on Tuesday, October 27 (10 PM-Midnight ET/PT) for the 2009 Scream Awards.

THE ULTIMATE SCREAM
-“Drag Me to Hell”
-“Let the Right One In”
-“Star Trek”
-“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
-“Twilight”
-“Up”

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