Troublesome news indeed. Waiting to hear when this movie will finally be made is like waiting for news of the premiere of the Spike movie to be announced. Or a Buffy reunion. Or an Angel reunion.
Or news of me hitting the lottery...groan....

AncientMagicks | June 24, 17:09 CET

Depressing to say the least, particularly considering that the last news of this film I read was in an interview with her where she sounded all kinds of stoked about doing it. Ah well, such is Hollywood. I just really hope this movie eventually gets made.

ChampBlankman | June 24, 17:16 CET

Not a bad thing in my opinion. Considering Alice is meant to be a teenager...

From what I remember of it, I was a very big fan of the original game (Chris Vrenna's score helped a lot), but that said considering Hollywood's track record for game adaptations, I'm not holding out much hope for the film. I'll be very glad to be wrong about that though.

I'm also still a little perplexed as to why American McGee feels the need to put his name in front of everything, because from what I'm aware of, Alice is the only one of his games that met with (albeit considerable) acclaim, the rest of his games haven't been that successful. For those interested, he does have a new series of "episodic" games coming out on GameTap based off Grimm's fairytales, but from what I've seen it all seems quite derivative, and the art/voicing is just not comparable to Alice.. which is a shame, really.

ETA: I just wanted to clarify, there's nothing wrong with being proud of what you create or anything, nor trying to create "brand recognition" for your name. I'm just a little cynical about it, I suppose, because putting your own name in front of everything can be seen as a bit egotistical when you consider just how many people are involved in making the game itself..

[ edited by MattK on 2008-06-24 14:19 ]

MattK | June 24, 17:17 CET

In related news, KingofCretin's wallet is also no longer attached to "Alice". Too bad, so sad.

It is a shame, I can't remember how many interviews where she seemed almost spazzy enthusiastic about that movie. I always want to see our Buffy alumni doing things that they are passionate about. A bit of fancasting -- adapt Rachel Caine's fun little "Weather Warden" series to the screen, and cast SMG as the star.

KingofCretins | June 24, 17:27 CET

I don't know much about the movie or the game but having met Erich Hoeber, he was the WGA captain on the ME day at Fox and came to the picnic afterwards, I hope it gets made.
Until then he did the script to Whiteout which is out soon starring Kate Beckinsale.

Mmmm.... Kate Beckinsale......

zz9 | June 24, 20:34 CET

The wording of his response sounds sort of indefinite. He doesn't say that Sarah changed her mind, or that the management person who was interested in her pursuing the role doesn't work with Sarah anymore, so it doesn't explicity state that she has said a definite no to the project or explained why she isn't officially attached anymore.

I think it's a shame, since it seemed like an interesting project which could have made a terrific film if done correctly. It's not quite on the same scale as Joss not doing Wonderwoman anymore, though. I'm sure Sarah will find other good projects to work on.

Razor | June 24, 23:15 CET

What could have been. *sigh*

I was so hoping SMG could play Alice. I get that she may not be as youthful looking as they wanted or whatever, but she would have been perfect. Providing the writing and directing were good, of course.

So sad. If the project comes to fruition, I'll definitely read up before viewing, if I even do that. Were SMG in the role I'd be running to the theaters opening day, not even caring if it were a crappy project.

April | June 25, 01:27 CET

I find this heartbreaking... I understand Alice is meant to be younger than SMG, but I was really excited at the idea of SMG playing Alice. I was beyond excited at the idea of the game coming to life, and with SMG attached to star, I was nearly fainting with excitement. Oh well. I just hope the movie does come to fruition, and that it is done well, and that it lives up to the fantastically amazing game.

I second that *sigh,* April.

Mrs.BigPileofDust | June 25, 01:32 CET

Wow...a management team?

magnus carnage | June 25, 06:07 CET

That's too bad, as I thought SMG would have been great for the role, in what could have been a cool movie.

At the same time, I wonder what the chances of the movie being made anymore with Tim Burton getting close to starting production on an Alice in Wonderland movie. If Burton's movie proves to be a decent hit, it might be hard trying to sell a second gothic Alice in Wonderland movie to studios.

Matt_Fabb | June 25, 07:04 CET

"I wonder what the chances of the movie being made anymore with Tim Burton getting close to starting production on an Alice in Wonderland movie."

I'd forgotten about that.. but very true anyway, Tim Burton will likely have a much better budget and the experience to implement that kind of thing, and it'll probably end up being brilliant. I doubt it'll be as dark as American McGee's Alice though, his Alice wasn't just gothic, it was really quite disturbing too.. the main plot was that Alice's parents had been burned to death in a fire, and Alice in her grief and insanity had fled to Wonderland (like the original Alice was a classic, "is this real, or just a dream?", this Alice was "is this real, or a psychotic hallucination?").

MattK | June 25, 16:00 CET

Given the early denials, the "mid-stage" confirmations never seemed totally believeable to me anyhow.

DaddyCatALSO | June 25, 16:24 CET

What on earth are you talking about?

garda39 | June 25, 17:28 CET

'Alice' seems to have been in pre-production with a variety of people connected to it or rumoured to be on board for a number of years now. It does not exactly come as a shock to learn that Gellar is no longer attached to it. Long before her brief involvement, wasn't it once a Wes Craven project? As I see it, based on what has happened up to now, the chance of this film ever getting made is probably even less likely than 'Wonder Woman'.

alien lanes | June 25, 17:56 CET

garda23; When this was "first-first-first" mentioned as a possible property for her, if you know what I mean, her management denied she was involved. So even when the rumors became more solid later, and she was mentioning it herself, I was still skeptical about its coming off.

DaddyCatALSO | June 26, 03:26 CET