Geez, ask a simple question, get a simple answer. Jim Jarmusch recently sat down with Pitchfork to talk about his work curating a day at the upcoming All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in upstate New York (his pretty great line up includes Girls, Fucked Up, Kurt Vile, Vivian Girls, Raekwon, GZA, DJ Kool Herc, Sunn O))) and Boris) and it didn’t take much prompting for him to drop some pretty big news about a couple of forthcoming projects he’s working on.

Most excitingly, Jarmusch has lined up a helluva cast for his next film. Three of our favorites, Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska are tentatively slated to star in the director’s next film. He reveals that while it isn’t “quite financed yet” he does “hope to shoot early next year.” No details on what it’s about but frankly, who cares. That lineup sounds extraordinary and we hope some investors out there start writing some checks to make this happen. For Swinton, it will be her third film with Jarmusch following 2009′s excellent and under-appreciated “The Limits Of Control” and 2005′s “Broken Flowers.” And if it all comes together it will be a re-team for Fassbender and Wasikowska following their work on Cary Fukunaga’s forthcoming “Jane Eyre.”

Also on Jarmusch’s busy plate is a gestating documentary on punk legends The Stooges. “It’s going to take a few years. There’s no rush on it, but it’s something that Iggy asked me to do,” Jarmusch reveals. Perhaps it’s something like “Coffee and Cigarettes” that the director will dip in and out of for the next little while?

And if that isn’t enough to keep him busy, Jarmusch is also working on a non-traditional opera about Nikolai Tesla with composer Phil Klein, has a new EP by his band Bad Rabbit (featured on the soundtrack of “The Limits Of Control”) coming out in time for ATP and is hoping to do some silent film score work.

And when he’s not taking calls from Iggy Pop, writing music and getting together film projects, Jarmusch tries (like all of us, really) to get in some quality hang time with Bill Murray, “I invited Bill Murray to come to ATP just to hang out, but I haven’t heard back from him. I think he’d dig it, but I don’t know where he is at the moment.”

As a side note, the August 16- 23 issue of the New Yorker has a fascinating and tragic profile on John Lurie, Jarmusch’s collaborator on his early films “Permanent Vacation,” “Stranger Than Paradise” and “Down By Law.” It’s a fascinating must-read if you ever wondered what happened to the jazz musician, artist, actor and New York City personality.

While every major role in director David Fincher’s hotly anticipated crime thriller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo has been cast in the last two weeks, the title character remains a mystery.

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For instance, Alice in Wonderland star Mia Wasikowska (wearing a Lisbeth-esque pixie haircut) still gets named as a leading contender. As the co-star of Disney’s billion-dollar spring blockbuster opposite Johnny Depp and this summer’s critical hit The Kids Are All Right, she would bring her own burgeoning celebrity to Dragon. But Wasikowska respectfully declined Fincher’s offer to screen test for it and has returned home to Australia. (The 20-year-old star will appear in two indie dramas next year: director Gus Van Sant’s Restless and as the title character in Jane Eyre.)

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Alice in Wonderland (2010) has been a long-awaited adaptation of the children’s book by Lewis Carroll. Most people are familiar with this story, being a classic and a children’s favorite. However, the 2010 version is special, as it is edgier and somewhat darker. Directed by Tim Burton, it boasts of a star-studded cast such as Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway and Crispin Glover. Mia Wasikowska plays 19-year old Alice, who loved to dream when she was young and told her father Charles Kingsleigh (Marton Csokas) of a place called Wonderland when she was young.

He used to tell her that he imagined 6 impossible things before breakfast. However, her father passed away in the recent years and she missed him dearly, especially his lighthearted attitude. Now that she is 19, Alice has to face the real world and act and dress like a proper lady should, and follow proper etiquette as well. She was invited to a Garden Party and Hamish, (Leo Bill) the son of her father’s business partner, was supposed to ask for her hand. However, she saw a white rabbit (Martin Sheen) scampering through the bushes and followed it. It led her to the rabbit hole and she fell into the hole that seemed never-ending and filled with stuff.

This hole led her to Wonderland, and there she would meet all sorts of characters such as the Tweedles (Matt Lucas), the Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), the Dodo bird (Michael Gough), Absolom the caterpillar (Alan Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover), the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway.)

The conflict in the movie is, will Alice be able to slay the Jabberwocky? According to the caterpillar, who read a scroll which has Wonderland’s history, it has been predicted that Alice will successfully slay the Jabberwocky on Frabjous Day. However, there seemed to be a mix-up because they did not know whether Alice was the right “Alice”, but Alice knew that it was all a dream. I loved how colorful the movie was in Wonderland, in contrast to the bleak reality of Alice’s life in London. The Mad Hatter was especially a feast for the eyes, with his bright hair, green eyes and outrageous makeup. The Red Queen was also something to look at, with her heart lips, huge head and shocking red hair. The real star of the movie though was Wasikowska, who reminds me of a young Gwyneth Paltrow. She played Alice really well and seemed like she could do anything. She can be a princess on one scene and a kick-ass knight on the next one. I also love how the movie relays the message that we should believe that anything is possible and not be tied down by society or people expect of us. We must aim to follow our dreams and turn it into reality.

Source: MovieMatics

Choice Movie: Fight: Mia Wasikowska vs. The Jabberwocky, “Alice in Wonderland”

Congratulations and thanks to all the fans for voting!

Six young and promising actresses are contending to land a role in one of the most prestigious Hollywood film parts of 2010, four of which are Australian.
Sophie Lowe from Beautiful Kate, Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska, Uninvited’s Emily Browning and Sydney stage sensation Sarah Snook are all aiming to grab the role of awkwardly asocial but extremely intelligent Lisbeth Salander. The four actresses flew in to LA this week after being short-listed for the big-budget adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s award-winning crime novel Girl With A Dragon Tattoo.
The women will not only be competing with each other, but also with two other leading ladies, who are both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominees.

English actress Carey Mulligan, from An Education, and Juno’s Ellen Page are also being considered by the director for the role.
According to a film source, the four actresses have good chances for the part, as director David Flincher is said to have specifically requested a “reasonably obscure” talent.
Rumour has it that James Bond actor Daniel Craig will play as the male lead of journalist Mikael Blomkvist, a role that was originally given to Brad Pitt.

Distributor Sony Pictures said the film about reporter Mikael and computer hacker Lisbeth, who are researching a family history for a wealthy recluse, will hit the big screens on December 2011.

Source: IBT