Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Disney are adding a strange new chapter to the Lewis Carroll classic with “Alice in Wonderland,” a film that presents a young woman who finds herself in the world of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen. She is welcomed as a returning visitor — but is she in fact the same Alice who roamed the trippy realm as a child? Time will tell. Here at the Hero Complex we’re counting down to the film’s March 5 release with daily coverage. Today it’s a conversation with Mia Wasikowska, the 20-year-old Aussie newcomer who plays the title role.

Geoff Boucher: The film is called “Alice in Wonderland,” but really this is neither a pure adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s writings nor a remake of previous films. This is a whole new story, correct?

Mia Wasikowska: It’s a completely different and new story, but it has a lot of the same characters in it. It has the same feel of the original stories, but it’s really fun to explore a story that goes further and imagines what all these characters would be like several years down the tracks. Alice doesn’t have a recollection of her first visit there. She’s gone back and is discovering this world and finding herself again in this place that she doesn’t even remember.

GB: There are very few directors who have a style and vision that is instantly recognizable — perhaps Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino are on that list among contemporary filmmakers — but there’s no question that Tim Burton is at the very top of that list. If you walk into a theater where a Burton movie is playing, you know it right away. That must make him an intriguing figure for actors.

MW: Absolutely. It is so cool to be part of his vision, to be able to start a project and see it all the way through to the end. It’s almost like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was such a fan of his films growing up, movies like “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood.” He has such a distinct style and a distinct sense of humor. And working with him it’s been such an amazing thing to see something first on the page and then watch it become real as he brings it to life. He has such a cool energy too.

GB: This movie took you into the world of green-screen moviemaking. I visited the set and it was a little disorientating just walking around in there; it messes up your depth of perception. Was it a struggle for you in any way?

MW: It is really strange. But Wonderland itself is bizarre and weird and comical and confusing, so it’s appropriate that, as you say, we were in this green-screen environment where it doesn’t always make sense to you. Things were just really odd and weird, and I suppose that was suitable to what we were working on. It put you in the right frame of mind. And it made you rely on your imagination more.

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Five new beautiful promotional shoots of Mia as Alice have been added to the gallery. Take a look!

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Movie Productions > Alice in Wonderland > Promo #2

I just run into few older candids from January 21. Mia looks really cute spotted out and about in LA. Those are first candid photos in MAS gallery!

This is a little too old to be called news but still worth posting!

Check out the first photo for THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT which stars Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Josh Hutcherson, Mark Ruffalo, Annette Bening, and is directed by Lisa Cholodenko.

The Kids Are All Right Synopsis: A couple, Nic and Jules (Annette Benning and Julianne Moore), live with their teenage children, Joni and Laser (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson), in a cozy craftsman bungalow in Los Angeles. As Joni prepares for college, her younger brother pesters her for a big favor—help him find their biological father. Against her better judgment, she makes a call to the sperm bank; the bank, in turn, calls Paul (Mark Ruffalo) and asks him if he’s willing to meet his daughter. He agrees, and a complicated new chapter begins for the family.

The Kids Are All Right will have its World Premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as an out-of-competition movie.

Growing up, Mia Wasikowska knew the story of Alice in Wonderland. But unlike most children, she was best acquainted with the version by experimental Czech director Jan Svankmajer, Alice. The macabre 1988 movie, which costars a young girl and a taxidermied rabbit, made a deep impression on Wasikowska and her siblings when their mother popped it into the VCR. “We used to be kind of disturbed by it,” recalls the 20-year-old Australian actress, best known Stateside for her role on HBO’s In Treatment. “But we could never walk away, because it was so fascinating and odd.”

Those same words could also describe the films of director Tim Burton, whose upcoming version of Lewis Carroll’s eternally surreal tale stars Wasikowska in the title role. “There is a lot of pressure,” acknowledges the actress during a brief visit to Beverly Hills from the Portland, Oregon, set of Gus Van Sant’s as-yet-unnamed next film, for which she cropped her long hair to play a death-obsessed teenager in love. “Alice is such a dear character to so many people that you have a responsibility to deliver something that people know but that’s also unique and different. It’s Tim’s Alice. It’s also my Alice.”

As if the challenge of inhabiting one of the world’s most famous female characters opposite costars Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter weren’t enough for the relatively inexperienced actress, Burton’s effects-heavy vision for the film required much of the 14-week shoot in England and Los Angeles to take place in front of an other­worldly green-screen set. “That’s a really weird way to work,” says Wasikowska, who often found herself interacting with inanimate objects standing in for her costars. “For a lot of scenes, there would be no one there and I’d be acting with tennis balls and sticky tape.”

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Congratulations to Mia Wasikowska for her nomination for Best Supporting Female role in That Evening Sun.

In a short amount of time, Mia Wasikowska has established herself as a rising star of the big and small screen. A trained ballerina turned actress, Wasikowska has been challenging herself as a performer since he age of 9. Wasikowska recently received critical praise from prominent national television critics for her portrayal of the tormented and suicidal teen Sophie in HBO’s Series In Treatment. Produced by Mark Wahlberg and directed by Rodrigo Garcia, In Treatment focuses on the relationship between a therapist (Gabriel Byrne) and his patients. In recognition of her performance, Wasikowska was honored by the Los Angeles Based organization Australians In Film (whose Host Committee includes Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts, NicolKidman, and Hugh Jackman among others) with the Breakthrough Actress Award. The series was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series.

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Thanks to our beloved partner site, we were able to add new outtake from Glamour November issue. Mia looks so pretty, isn’t she?

#50. Alice in Wonderland

Director: Tim Burton
Writer(s): Linda Woolverton
Producers: Joe Roth, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd, Richard D. Zanuck and Burton
Distributor: Disney

The Gist: Based on Lewis Carroll’s beloved “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and “Through the Looking-Glass” (1871), this sees Depp star as the Mad Hatter and Mia Wasikowska play 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror…..(more)

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Timothy Spall, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas and Barbara Windsor.

Why is it on the list?: Burton has set the standard for mixing macabre, the highly imaginative and eye candy spectacle but I don’t think “big-budget” and grandiose have served Burton well in the recent past. From what has been shown so far, I don’t think we’ll need to go into this chemically challenged route - let’s hope that this strikes the right balance: with an emphasis on the performances.

Release Date/Status?: A wide release on March 5th.

The world premiere of Tim Burton’s new film Alice In Wonderland is to take place in London on February 25, it has been announced.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will be in attendance for the event as it is being held in aid of The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts.

Alice In Wonderland’s stars - who include Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter - are expected to join the royal guests on the night.

The world premiere will be held at the capital’s Leicester Square before the highly-anticipated movie goes on general release across the UK on March 5.

The Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts is an educational charity which aims to help all British children to discover the arts as “an enjoyable part of life”.

Showing off her new shorter hair, Mia Wasikowska (pronounced Vah-shee-kov-ska) models in the garden for the February 2010 issue of Teen Vogue magazine.

The 20-year-old Aussie Alice in Wonderland star opened up to the mag about being Alice, fame and the upcoming Jane Eyre.

On taking fame as it comes: “I like my anonymity—that when I meet people they don’t know me. I like getting jobs because I auditioned for them, because of my ability as opposed to my celebrity.”

On playing the title character in the biggest fantasy story: “One of the things that was scary about taking on that role is the huge fan base; everybody has their own idea of who she is. So [Tim Burton and I] discussed, very early on, just being happy with her being our Alice…making her my own. I really think it will be exciting, especially for girls my age because it explores that period of your life when you have these expectations upon you and you’re finding that, amongst that, you have to try and hold on to yourself.”

On taking on the romantic story of Jane Eyre: “I’m completely excited. As a teenager I was very anxious. I had a lot of energy and passion that I wanted to channel into creative things, and I always felt like I wasn’t achieving enough.”