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Alice Movie Off The Ground 115

Posted by Zonk from the wearing-her-i'm-a-slayer-ask-me-how-button dept.
After a long period of preproduction, the movie adaptation of American McGee's Alice is moving forward. Eurogamer has the news that 'Buffy' star Sarah Michelle Gellar will play the title role. From the article: "The movie will follow the plot of the game, which adds a twisted spin to Lewis Carroll's classic tales. Some years after her adventures in Wonderland, Alice's parents are killed in a house fire and, devastated by the loss, she winds up in a mental asylum."
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Alice Movie Off The Ground More

Alice Movie Off The Ground

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  • I've personally always been a fan of story-based video games. Alice is a perfect example of one, and with such a strong fleshed-out plot, I'd hope that they'd manage to get it done without too many screw-ups.

    On the other hand, look at what they did to Doom.
  • Sounds like a capitolisation on a good idea.

    BTW, this is my 700th slashdot post. YAY!


  • Truly excellent game...looking forward to the movie.

    Sarah Michelle Gellar, though? Isn't Alice supposed to be British?

    While were at it, I'd like to see the movie adaptations of System Shock andSystem Shock IIas well...

    ^_^

    • Re:Excellent (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Winckle ( 870180 )
      War Of The Worlds was set in Eastern England, now look at the Speilberg film. A typical American family coping with the crisis was not what Wells had in mind
      • I like to think that HG Wells would have approved of Orson Welles' broadcast version, oddly enough set partially in Eastern New England.

        And really, that is the version I'd love to see a remake of. Played on TV as a "Breaking News" newscast, as coverage of events in progress. Think the SciFi channel could pull this off?

        • I like to think that HG Wells would have approved of Orson Welles' broadcast version, oddly enough set partially in Eastern New England.

          (Engage Wikipedia!)

          Given that the radio broadcast [wikipedia.org] was in October 1938 and H. G. Wells [wikipedia.org] died in August 1946 it's quite probable that he knew about it - but does anyone know what he actually thought of it?

          There seems to be quite a vogue for drama-portrayed-as-fact in the UK at the moment. One decent one I saw recently was Supervolcano [wikipedia.org], a cheery tale in which millions of Am
          • There seems to be quite a vogue for drama-portrayed-as-fact in the UK at the moment. One decent one I saw recently was Supervolcano, a cheery tale in which millions of Americans get buried in a giant volcanic eruption. Others are a bit weirder (there was a bizarre 'documentary' about dragons on Channel 4; I switched off when it started hypothesising about dragon mating rituals) - but sadly I do think a modernised War of the Worlds would be considered a bit 'done-already'. :-/

            It's here in the US, too. In f
    • Excepting that most (or all) video game translations of games wind up being pretty awful... the System Shock storyline is GREAT, it'd even have appeal beyond geekdom (as would the Alice film, which is why I think it could work, financially at the least)

      ===

      On a semi-related note, I wonder what would happen if they made a ZZT movie? I'd love to see that.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • This giant face needs to collect purple keys that look (oddly enough) like the symbol for "The Artist formerly known as Prince" or whatever the heck he calls himself now (probably 'Assistant manager') ... in order to save the KINGDOM OF ZZT!

          ===

          He shoots "bullets" that oddly enough look like bubbles, and his enemies are called things like RUFFIANS! Oh man, those ruffians... always ... being so ruffianesque... ...

          *cough*

          On second thought maybe it wouldn't be as good as I thought.
    • Does it really matter that much? Is the story in some way about her inherent British-ness?

      Anyway, if the movie people want to make her British, I think Sarah Michelle Gellar can pull it off. I like to think that she's a better actress than people give her credit for. I mean, just the fact that her character in The Grudge felt like a different person than Buffy was enough to convince me that she's better at acting than most people seem to think.
    • System Shock is an amazing candidate for a movie. (Also, best FPS ever.) I read an online novel loosely based on it (twice) that, I think, really shows how great a script could be.

      It's called Free Radical, by Shamus Young, and I won't link to it anywhere on Slashdot. Google is a useful tool.

  • Dementation of already odd tales (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mister_llah ( 891540 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @02:17PM (#12874369) Homepage Journal
    ... seems to be a trend in film and theater these days. Alice in an institution, the Wicked Witch being portrayed as the victim of Dorothy in "Wicked" (on broadway) ... http://www.wickedthemusical.com/ [wickedthemusical.com] ... if you are the curious sort...

    ===

    I think it's all well and good to try and come up with new ideas, but in a way, I am starting to dislike the trend of taking childhood films and turning them into something not intended for children.

    Next they'll have "The New Adventures of the Smurfs" ... it'll be triple X, and you know where this is going, so I'll shut the smurf up.
    • Listen buddy, you can take that comment and smurf it right up your smurfing smurf. People like you really smurf me off.

      (BTW- I hear from a reliable source that Smurfette just LOVES it up her smurf. Smurf yeah!)
    • It might be a new trend commercially, but it's been around for a bit. I remember writing a creative writing bit for class about Goldilocks' version of the 3 bears encounter. It ended up a rretty amusing story.
      • I won't deny a certain allure in modernizing/making adult (not like that, pervs!) tales from my childhood, and I am guilty of having drawn comics that depict things such as Q-bert doing a line of coke, or the bulemic Hungry Hungry Hippo... ... but these things won't be seen by kids... (and I suppose Wicked isn't likely to, either) ... I suppose I just worry that kids have enough media influence screwing with their heads, and previews being what they are (being played on TV, nothing more sinister than that ;

    • Re:Dementation of already odd tales (Score:4, Funny)

      by justforaday ( 560408 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @02:38PM (#12874603)
      Next thing you know Disney will come along and start bastardizing classic stories...
    • Smurfs, Shortcake, who knows what's next?

      Obligatory PA link here [jasongriffey.net].
    • Not sure I'd consider "Alice in Wonderland" a kids book per se... there're a lot of adult themes in the original story, including drug references (although he was not under the influence of any illicit drugs when he wrote AIW, contrary to popular belief), beheadings, disobedience of authority (how shocking!), etc. I'd let my kids read it, but I think that an adult can get as much out of it as a kid, on a wholly different level.

      That said, I thought the AM's Alice was a great game, that I thought paid appr
    • As you can see by the replies to the parent post, twisting children's entertainment to adult themes is nothing new. Most of it is garbage, but most entertainment is rehashed garbase anyway.

      To add yet antother example, anyone remember Andrew "Dice" Clay and his rendition of Mother Goose rhymes?
    • I think it's all well and good to try and come up with new ideas, but in a way, I am starting to dislike the trend of taking childhood films and turning them into something not intended for children.

      "...It just couldn't happen. Smurfs are asexual. They don't even have reproductive organs under those little white pants. That's what's so illogical, you know, about being a Smurf. What's the point of living if you don't have a dick?"

    • Re:Dementation of already odd tales (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @04:29PM (#12875658) Journal
      Ever read the Brothers Grimm?
      • Actually, no... should I?

        • Re:Dementation of already odd tales (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @04:44PM (#12875777) Journal
          Yes [gutenberg.org].

          It may not be Hellraiser, but the term "Fairy Tale" has been pretty whitewashed since the Brothers Grimm chronicled them. If you go expecting stories about Jack jumping over the candlestick, you'll be surprised.

          Modern times differs only in our ability to graphically depict gore without actually hurting anybody; the fascination isn't new.
          • Oh I thought it was some new book or something with the title "The Brothers Grimm" ... :"> ... but how many of us are raised on the unedited ones? I think I heard about them being twisted originally around Jr. High, by then I wasn't young enough to take delight in cutting people's heads off or doing horrible things except in games like Wolfenstien :)

        • Re:Dementation of already odd tales (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Elwood P Dowd ( 16933 ) <judgmentalist@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @04:48PM (#12875809) Journal
          It's rather educational. Definitely don't read it to your kids without preparing yourself and checking the whole story beforehand.

          For example, one of Cinderella's stepsisters was doing fine with Prince Charming, until the fields whispered to him "Dude, check out her foot! Check out her foot!" and he looked and saw that she had severed her heel in order to fit into the glass slipper and she was bleeding everywhere.

          Also for example, there is a story that's only one page long about Rose Red: This little boy disobeys his mother and goes out into the forest and meets Rose Red. Then, exactly one year later, the boy dies in his bed and his mother finds a red rose on the doorstep. No, it's not too upsetting, but that's the whole story.

          Most of the stories are gory and weird. Yes, German people are twisted, but IMHO there is something to be said for telling your children about twisted shit. This is expounded upon in Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, and he cites The Raven [setonhill.edu] (By Coleridge, not Poe) as an excellent example.
          • Beeing a german and haveing grown up with those, admitantly sometimes disturbing, stories, I remember having learned that these stories originally werent intended for children.
            The stories and fairytales the grimms collected in the 18th century, have been going around for many hundreds of years before they were written down and collected.
            Back in those days, there were told by and for adults, wich explains why a lot of them are rather cruel and explicit.
            Try and find some of grimms fairytales in their original
            • I thought that Cinderella was a French story, but I'm not sure.

              Anyway, I heard that in the original story, the shoe was made out of fur and not glass. And there was an expression called "putting the foot in the fur shoe" which was a euphemism for sex.

              I guess the prince slept with a lot of women in order to find the "shoe" that fit.
      • Actually the original stories were a lot more gore than the Grimm or the Perrault versions.
        Take "little red hood" for instance.
        They found it too gore for young people, especially young girls, and some parts were senseless to them. So they cut off all that was bothering them.
        They were in fact part of an oral tradition of stories which brought meanings to various stades of life in the countrysides of Europe. And you couldnt understand such stories either if you didnt know the way they were living. Which neith
    • I remember the night my father used to read struwwelpeter [vcu.edu] to me.

      "When children have been good,
      That is, be it understood,
      Good at meal-times, good at play,
      Good at night, and good all day, -
      They shall have the pretty things
      Merry Christmas always brings.
      Naughty, romping girls and boys
      Tear their clothes and make a noise,
      Soil their aprons and their frocks,
      And deserve no Christmas-box.
      Such as these shall never look
      At this pretty Picture-Book."
  • she is now Buffy the Cheshire Cat Slayer *grin*
  • Alice was definitely one of the best games I've ever played. It was crazy, fun, and extremely well thought out. Honestly, I don't think a movie producer could pick a better game to make a movie out of.

    I've been keeping track of the movie for years. I'm glad the idea wasn't just smoke in the wind.

    Anyone who hasn't played it should check it out [torrentspy.com].
  • So it will have a pair of dice that SMG rolls and summons up demons with? Seriously that was a twisted game. It should be an interesting transition

  • ADDS a twisted spin? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Gulthek ( 12570 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @02:21PM (#12874403) Homepage Journal
    You mean their wasn't twisted nature to that book already? Or does the submitter mean that the happy spin added by Disney is twisted back to the creepiness of the book with this movie?
    • Disney still managed to make it pretty creepy, even if it wasn't as creepy as the book... or at least, it is creepy to me...

      ===

      Perhaps this is just part of the natural flow of things? Tales from the dark ages were pretty demented (heck, even the ones that have been altered over time started out being pretty bad, such as the Arthurian legend and Robin Hood) ... but... who knows, since no one from those eras is alive to tell us about any actual similarities :)

    • You mean their wasn't twisted nature to that book already?

      Well, if you're a fan of Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice, then of course you know that the Alice books are full of death jokes and other dark stuff. But when I first read them at the age of 10, all that stuff went right by me -- it was just a cute story.

      My two personal favorites: The Bread-And-Butter Fly, which lives on weak tea with cream in it. That's hard to get, so the BABF has a short life span. Then there's the Tweedle Brothers attempts

  • "Sarah Michelle Gellar to star in remake of 'Alice.' No word on who will play Vic Tayback role. Alyson Hannigan as Flo? Kiss my grits."

    I don't know why people keep giving her acting jobs. I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer show _despite_ the title character and actor, not _because_ of them. The 'supporting' cast was flat-out amazing, and the show had some of the best writing ever done for us nerds. The more nerdy you are, the more you get out of the show.
  • I tracked this back when they first announced they were making a movie of the game. On IMDB it was set to have Wes Craven direct, John August to write, and the title was changed from "Alice" to "Dark Wonderland."

    Doesn't appear to exist on IMDB anymore. So is it still going to have this name? Because, uh, "Alice" is a MUCH less lame sounding name than "Dark Wonderland."
    • "Doesn't appear to exist on IMDB anymore. So is it still going to have this name? Because, uh, "Alice" is a MUCH less lame sounding name than "Dark Wonderland.""

      Yeah but "Alice" isn't something that's "in" right now. The American public wouldn't "get it". We need cool names like "The Wickeds", "Seed Of Chucky", "Dark Town" .. and let's not forget the best movie name ever ... "Gothica" !!!!

      </sarcasm>

      P.S .. I intentionally avoided seeing Gothica solely because of the name... oh and because of Halley

  • Ugh (Score:1)

    by TheBot ( 806046 )
    Why do they have to use her for Alice? Can't we get someone BETTER? Blah, I won't be seeing this simply because we don't need some no class hollywood actors in it. I wish they could've found someone better. *sigh*

  • wrong actress... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Allison Geode ( 598914 ) on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @03:03PM (#12874858)
    should have gotten Christina Ricci for Alice. she already looks the part, at least, and i can see her doing the mentally unstable goth in a strange land better than Sarah Michelle Gellar.

    • Re:wrong actress... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ultramk ( 470198 ) <ultramk@noSPAm.pacbell.net> on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @03:44PM (#12875272)
      I'm not sure you get the character very well. She's the epitome of the little-blond-good-girl, until her life is ripped apart and she becomes... twisted.

      So you need a hollow-eyed blond waif who has her mind... corrupted innocence. SMG might actually work for this. Though I would prefer someone like Alicia Silverstone (too old now I guess).

      Christina Ricci, on the other hand, seems like she was born that way. Remember her as Wednesday Addams?

      m-
      • Christina Ricci, on the other hand, seems like she was born that way. Remember her as Wednesday Addams?

        That movie was full of inspired casting. And lots of great lines, too [imdb.com].

        Girl Scout: Is this made from real lemons?
        Wednesday: Yes.
        Girl Scout: I only like all-natural foods and beverages, organically grown, with no preservatives. Are you sure they're real lemons?
        Pugsley: Yes.
        Girl Scout: I'll tell you what. I'll buy a cup if you buy a box of my delicious Girl Scout cookies. Do we have a deal?
        Wednesda

      • GO to IMDB and look at the headshot they have on her page. Actually, hell, here:

        http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000207/ [imdb.com]

        Tell me that isn't freaking perfect.

        She does do the Wednesday Addams thing very well, sure, so she gets called on to do it a lot. And I can't pretend I'm some kind of Christina Ricci expert or anything, I've only seen at most five movies with her in them, but she isn't ALWAYS like that.
        • I don't know... I saw her in "Cursed" earlier this year... and she was just terrible. Of course, it could have just been the horrible, stupid script, but she was really, really bad.

          I've always liked her work, too.

          m-
  • Well, I still think that Natalie Portman would be a better Alice... But, hey, "Buffy" was pretty good in "The Grudge", so maybe she can pull it off :D

  • *keeping fingers crossed* (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ultramk ( 470198 ) <ultramk@noSPAm.pacbell.net> on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @03:17PM (#12874991)
    Here's hoping American McGee's Strawberry Shortcake [aol.com] will make it to the big screen soon, too.

    m-
  • "the movie adaptation of American McGee's Alice is moving forward ... 'Buffy' star Sarah Michelle Gellar will play the title role."

    the title role... so would that be American McGee or Alice?

  • Games to movies , amoungst the.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) <fidelcatsro&gmail,com> on Tuesday June 21, 2005 @03:58PM (#12875408) Journal
    It will join such classics as Resident Evil the movie , The Mario brothers movie , Alien VS predator(comic as well but still fits in here) , Tomb Raider.... Oh wait they were all pretty much terrible
    It will need a miracle to make this conversion anything beyond awful , the best of which being Tomb raider and it was fairly poor.
    Game to movie conversions have for some strange reason (perhaps its the total disregard for the plot (Mario) or the shoddy acting and poor scripts (most of them)) .
    I am not getting any hopes up here , lets hope for a pleasant surprise though
  • A modernized version of the Jefferson Airplane song "Go Ask Alice [songmeanings.net]" needs to be on the soundtrack.

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