'Alice In Wonderland' Effects Supervisor
Details Tim Burton's Vision'

Tim just has a take on it in his head that
is unlike anybody that I know,' Michael
Lantieri tells MTV News.
By Eric Ditzian

Since the early 20th-century, silent-film
version of Lewis Carroll's 1865 book "Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland," there has been no
shortage of cinematic, animated, musical and
made-for-TV adaptations of Alice's legendary
trip down the rabbit hole. Tim Burton and his
partner in big-screen head trips, Johnny Depp,
are the latest to take on the beloved
children's book.

On Monday (June 22), USA Today released the
first eye-popping images from their 2010 movie,
and MTV News recently spoke with the
special-effects supervisor on the film, Michael
Lantieri, about how Burton's edition will be t
ruly unique.

"Tim just has a take on it in his head that is
unlike anybody that I know," Lantieri said.

The USA Today pictures show Depp as an
orange-haired, white-faced Mad Hatter, Helena
Bonham Carter as the Red Queen with a high
forehead and tons of pale-blue eye shadow, and
Anne Hathaway as the peroxide-blond White Queen.
Burton's take on "Alice" follows the curious
child now that she's 17 years old and has
forgotten her original adventure in Wonderland.
Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (HBO's
"In Treatment") plays the title role.

"There is something real, honest and sincere
about her," producer Richard Zanuck told USA
Today about the actress. "She's not a typical
Hollywood starlet."

According to Lantieri, the decision to update
the story with an older Alice was not the only
tricky determination that filmmakers had to
make. "There were discussions over everything,
including, 'Is it OK for the caterpillar to
smoke?' " he told us, referring to the iconic
scene in which Alice encounters the insect
chilling on a mushroom and puffing on a hookah.
"You'd be surprised how big a discussion that
was and how they solve it."

Another innovation for this newest "Alice" is
the introduction of 3-D, and Lantieri maintains
that we've never seen the technology used the
way Burton does it in this film. "I think that's
really gonna be something to look at," Lantieri
said, declining to go into further detail.
"His vision and his take on things — I never get
tired of it. If you can only imagine."

Jun 22 2009 1:31 PM EDT

http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1614416/story.jhtml