12 h, jul 23, 2009 y - COMIC CON
San Diego
Teaser Trailer
Johnny Depp
Tim Burton
Description:
Alice in Wonderland press conference at Comic-Con 2009 held at San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California on July 23, 2009
Johnny Depp thrilled the Comic Con patrons in Hall H by making a quick appearance on stage to support his friend and director Tim Burton.
Tim was there to introduce the trailer for Alice in Wonderland, in which Johnny plays the Mad Hatter. According to E! Online, when Tim reached the end of his Q&A segment, he "asked the crowd if they would like to meet the "imaginary friend' that follows him around." To the delight of the crowd, Johnny appeared on stage and waved.
Director Tim Burton took the stage at Comic Con to talk about his new approach to Lewis Carroll's Alice stories and his experience shooting Alice in Wonderland in 3D.
"I haven't been here since I was a student, when it was a few people and a slide show," Burton joked; now Hall H was packed to the rafters and the Alice trailer was being shown in 3D.
The new film follows an older Alice as she returns to Wonderland, but it is based on elements in the Lewis Carroll works. Burton wanted to "try and make Alice feel more like a story as opposed to a series of events" and to try to give the viewer "an emotional connection" to Alice, rather than just one surprising visual after another.
"Seeing other movie versions of it, I never felt an emotional connection to it," Burton said. "It was always a girl wandering around from one crazy character to another, and I never really felt any real emotional connection. So it's an attempt to really try to give [Alice in Wonderland] some framework of emotional grounding that has never been in any version before. So that's the challenge to me.
Burton called Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter "an iconic character" and noted that JD sought to find that "emotional grounding" for the Mad Hatter-"something that you feel, as opposed to just being mad," Burton said. "In a lot of versions it's a very one-note kind of character. His goal was to try and bring out a human side to the strangeness of the character. Any time I work with him, that's something he tries to do, so that's no exception.
Burton also said that he felt 3D was the right choice for Alice in Wonderland because of the nature of the story: "with the Alice material, the growing and shrinking and the weird kind of spaces and places you're in, it just kind of helps with the experience," he explained. "I'm personally not out to make it a gimmick. I think it puts you in this world more."
