I didn’t care for the first poster of the Alice in Wonderland triptych, I thought the second one was rather good, and now that the third one is online and the triptych is complete, all I can say is, “Huzzah?”  It was an interesting use of Facebook to bring fans into the marketing campaign while simultaneously getting them hooked on the film’s updates via the social networking site.  But as for the final product of these three posters, they don’t really sway me one way or the other.  And while I understand that they need Johnny Depp to sell the money, it gets on my nerves that he’s the only actor in this triptych twice, he holds the center poster, and only his name gets to be on a poster.  I don’t remember much about Alice in Wonderland so if the Mad Hatter is actually the main character, I retract my previous statements.

Hit the jump to see Depp’s poster and what all three look like when you put them together.  Alice in Wonderland hits theaters on March 5, 2010

There’s a new poster for Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is part of a series of three, also known as a triptych (know it for your SAT, kids).  The way this will work is that the poster after the jump has to get 7,500 likes on the Facebook page for “The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter” and then the next poster will be revealed and then I assume it will take even more likes to get the last poster.  I think on its own this poster is terrible and I don’t see how adding two more will somehow take away Helena Bonham Carter’s Sutherland-at-the-end-of-Invasion-of-the-Body-Snatchers look or that the “3″ at the bottom looks like an “8″ but people that’s just a silly font thing.

Check out the full poster after the jump because you need a reminder that Tim Burton is dark and whimsical.

Spike TV has posted a sort of new trailer Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”.  Though most of the footage will look familiar to anyone who caught the teaser trailer that Disney released a few months back, new footage is mixed throughout including extended shots of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter that hint at how spectacular the film will look in its Disney Digital 3D and IMAX formats.  Peek down the rabbit hole after the jump.

THR is reporting that Mia Wasikowska has been cast in Gus Van Sant’s “Restless”.  The actress had previously been contemplating a part in Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” before going with “Restless”. We still don’t know much about the film except it will tell a “complex tale of a teenage boy and girl who share a preoccupation with mortality”.  We also know that the film will be produced by Bryce Dallas Howard and will be written by one of her film school classmates, Jason Lew, who wrote the play that the film will be based on.  You may know Wasikowska from her critically acclaimed performance on HBO’s “In Treatment”, but I’m sure she will be huge next year once Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” opens as she’s playing Alice.  Wasikowska can also next be seen in “Amelia” later this month.

I’ll have my commentary after the jump.  You want to see the full photo now.  It’s hilarious.

A few hours ago I spoke with Michael Sheen regarding his new movie “The Damned United”. While I’ll have much more on his new film soon, I was able to ask Michael about some of his other projects like “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”, “Tron Legacy”, “Alice in Wonderland” and the “Underworld” franchise. So if you’d like to hear what Michael had to say about those projects, hit the jump.

Who would have thought that “Batman: Arkham Asylum, the latest Batman videogame in series which has fallen notoriously short on its trips to home consoles, would come up as one of the best-reviewed and best-selling games of 2009 when it made its next-gen debut on XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3?  Well, I did.  I watched all the trailers, knew that the story was by Paul Dini, that Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy were coming back as The Joker and Batman, respectively, and that this would be the first adaptation to actually take advantage of Batman’s abilities beyond his fighting skills and the darkness of the character’s attitude which sets him apart from all the other big-name superheroes.

“Batman: Arkham Asylum” is better than every Batman adaptation including “The Dark Knight”.  Hit the jump to find out why before your brain explodes.

I admit it: I never see Tyler Perry coming.  The writer/director who has watched six of his eight feature films open at number one at the domestic box office always sneaks up on me somehow.  So while I was busy watching “Inglourious Basterds” crawl past $100 million this week, Perry’s latest Madea-melodrama had an unchallenged run at the top spot once again.  Meanwhile, other new releases like the Kate Beckinsale thriller “Whiteout” had less success finding a fanbase, leaving “I Can Do Bad” to rack up $24 million for Perry’s third-highest opening to date.

Welcome to fall at the box office, where the releases are smaller and so are the returns!  Four new titles hit multiplexes this week - all competing for the limited dollars that this, traditionally slower, weekend has to offer.  Producers Tim Burton and Timon Bekmambetov got an early jump on the frame by releasing their animated feature “9″ to 1,661 theatres on Wednesday (09-09-09).  In a crowded field this marketing ploy seems to have paid off and “9″ goes into the weekend with a $4.4 million head-start.  Wider openers include the Summit Entertainment slasher “House on Sorority Row” and “Whiteout”, which launched on 2,775 screens but couldn’t crack Friday’s top five.  The one to watch, however, is Tyler Perry’s latest Madea flick “I Can Do Bad All By Myself”.  On 2,255 screens “Bad” is playing for number one - hoping to outdo the $17.4 million Perry earned for “The Family That Preys” on this same weekend back in 2008.  Check back tomorrow to see if he makes it.

Tim Burton made a surprise appearance at the D23 Expo to display a 3-D teaser for his upcoming “Alice in Wonderland” feature, and announce his follow up project to be a stop-motion adaptation of “Frankenweenie,” one of the short films he made prior to his rookie feature-length directorial effort in “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.”  More weenie after the jump.

“9″ is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that is visually inspiring, exquisitely crafted, unflinching (for an animated PG-13 movie), and frustratingly vapid.  It’s one thing to see a bloated summer blockbuster indulge in such technical indulgence at the expense of story and character (I’m looking at you “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”), but for a small movie like “9″ which was based on an animated short film and comes out of Universal’s art house distribution division, Focus Features, “9″ only cares about its technical and visual achievements and forgets its story and characters.

If you were debating about the debut film from director Shane Acker, I’m here to tell you it’s great.  This visionary tale is worth more than a cursory glance and it’s definitely worth ten of your American dollars.  Set after the Machines have rained down the apocalypse upon us, “9″ shows a different perspective, one seen from the eyes of tiny Steampunk creations.

At the “9″ junket, director Shane Acker talked about the journey his film took from Student Academy Award winning short to feature release backed by visionary producer/directors Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov.  Watch the interview after the jump.

Opening on September 9^th is director Shane Acker’s debut feature film “9″. The film is based on his short that won an Academy Award, and with the help of producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, he got to make a feature. While I have yet to see “9″, it looks really cool and the people I’ve spoken to that have seen it have told me positive things. So if you’d like to take a look at some footage, after the jump are 6 clips from the film and a 4 minute featurette.

Tim Burton made his second appearance at Comic Con this year on board the panel for 9. This time he is attached as producer to Shane Ackers new animated film “9″. After being shown the trailer for “9″, director Shane Acker, producers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, as well as stars Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly came out for a panel discussion and Q&A. What was talked about is after the jump.

This isn’t the same trailer I saw three times this morning in Hall H but it’s still good (although I think the one from this morning is slightly better since it had different music, a different opening, and was in 3D).  You still get a clear idea of what Tim Burton is going for and while it’s still clearly within his wheelhouse, I think he’s working from strong source material and isn’t watering down Lewis Caroll’s work.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  “Alice in Wonderland” hits theatres on March 5^th, 2010.

The surreal world of Alice In Wonderland and the creative vision of Tim Burton are such a natural fit that I am almost shocked it has taken this long to come about. If the fan reaction from the first look at Disney and Burton’s latest venture is any indication, the combination is yielding even better results that could be imagined. Fortunately, Mr. Burton took time from his production schedule to show off his latest project, and to answer a few of our questions. Find out what Tim had to say about other Wonderland movies, his take on the stories, and if there’s something fishy going on between Alice and the Mad Hatter after the break.