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Syfy Goes Through the Looking Glass With Alice Miniseries
Reported by Kristen - 10:05 PM 2009.11.19
 It's interesting to see how trends evolve and dominate entertainment. The more recent, and popular, trend is the vampire craze but it seems obvious that filmmakers are in love with Alice, Alice in Wonderland that is. The majority of audiences are probably aware of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's re-telling of Alice in Wonderland, scheduled to hit big screens in March. An adaptation for the smaller screen is Syfy's original mini-series Alice, premiering on December 6th and concluding December 7th, both airing at 9pm. Director/writer Nick Willing and Alice star Caterina Scorsone sat down to talk about the new take on the book, the cast, themes, differences from the book, and the character of Alice herself.Syfy's retelling of Alice follows the titular character (Scorsone), as she enters a bizarre world to find her abducted boyfriend. Possessing a magical stone that is needed to operate the looking glass, the Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates) and a host of other characters take chase to find the stone and Alice herself. Stars like Tim Curry, Matt Frewer and Harry Dean Stanton round out a cast that is sure to entice fans of the novel or other past adaptations. In looking at the above synopsis it's obvious the Syfy mini-series is taking the classic Lewis Carroll novel in a different director. Writer and director, Nick Willing, recently came off the other popular Syfy adaptation, the Wizard of Oz retelling “Tin Man” and visited Wonderland in another miniseries ten years ago. The director says he wasn't originally set on taking another stab at the magical world, citing things like Alice being too passive of a character and other difficult aspects of translating a book with very little plot. In reflecting on his past with “Tin Man” and how it helped him make his decision to craft Alice, Willing says, “We felt that we had discovered in Tin Man a new way to re-imagine the classic so we wanted to take another classic, that was fantasy based, and there was none better visually than Alice.” After a bit of persuading Willing crafted a script that has been praised by actress Scorsone several times as fantastic. The director says Syfy jumped in soon thereafter and the rest is history. In looking at the adaptation and his past work, Willing his miniseries based on classic literature stems from wanting to take classic tales “and spinning it in a different way.” With that in mind he sought to ask how would Wonderland be viewed today in a modern context, “If we had similar characters wouldn't they be different? It was an idea of bringing it into modern focus” according to the director that pulled him into the story. As mentioned previously, the cast is comprised of big name actors such as Kathy Bates, Matt Frewer and Tim Curry. Nick Willing was asked about his experiences getting Kathy Bates in the cast, an actress he describes as not only his first choice for the coveted role of the Queen of Hearts, but he also proclaimed her as “one of the most spectacular actresses in the world.” After sending her the script Willing says she said yes almost immediately, although she was a bit hesitant about donning an English accent. In discussing her character, described as a vicious person with a huge heart, Willing goes on to say, “One of the things that we tried to do in our story is find in these famous characters very three dimensional emotional personalities. The character of the Queen of Hearts is quite a complex person with very complex goals.” When asked about her chemistry with the cast, Alice herself Caterina Scorsone explained, “We were filming in Vancouver which is such a gorgeous city and we had this wonderfully rich rehearsal period so we really got to know each other. Not only were we exploring it psychologically and emotionally, we had to learn to horseback ride together, [So] when you're facing all those tasks together you bond in a way that's really special.” Willing seems to be extremely devoted to his cast, saying everyone had a wonderful time crafting this special. In particular Willing seems focused the most on spending time with his cast and getting to know them. When asked what his favorite aspect of filming was, he replied spending time with the actors. Willing says, “The actors are more intelligent than most....they make their life exploring emotions on screen, that makes for a very entertaining companion. It makes the day just wonderful so I always spend most of my time hanging with the actors.” Lewis Carroll's writing of Alice in Wonderland has been praised as a successful work of satire. Nick Willing took those elements, and added some more poignant themes including self-gratification and the changing of our current world, to further allow the audience to connect with his adaptation. Scorsone herself thought of the story in terms of what is says about our world as a wonderland saying, “Since 9/11 so much has happened in our world to turn it into this topsy-turvy place that people wouldn't recognize 20 years ago. I think people are kind of walking around with wide open eyes like Alice asking 'what on earth is happening.' That is what makes Alice a story for our time.” Willing furthers that point by describing, “Wonderland is a place where extraordinary and amazing things happen in the book but also very dark and frightening things happen” and especially in the novel Alice Through the Looking Glass, which is a huge part of this miniseries, “everything is turned on its head.” The Queen of Hearts will have added symbolism in the story as Willing sees her as a character who expects instant gratification, “She was a person who simply acted like she wanted to act and she always got what she wanted when she wanted it.” The director and writer then turned to discussing science fiction and fantasy as a whole, describing science fiction as “a popularist platform to explore difficult things.” While trying not to sound too fancy, Willing just states it explores themes that people deal with everyday of their lives. It's obvious Nick Willing has a huge love for Carroll's original work, evidenced by his discussion the differences from the source material. Willing says, “I wanted to include everything I could. I found myself in this story more than anything I've ever written.” In exploring different topics and formats, all the while trying to make a fairy tale for adults, he wanted to make the series as “psychological” as he could. An example he cites is, “I always saw Tweedledee and Tweedledum as torturous of her. In the film, I actually made them the Queen's torturers. The book was kind of a trigger, an inspiration and from there it spawned many things.” Scorsone sees things differently stating, “What was great about this script that Nick wrote...is that Alice in this story has a real emotional journey of her own, whereas in the book she's this wide eyed young girl walking through this fascinating land. In this version...the fascination of the land almost acts as a metaphor of the fascination inside her personality.” Both sides seem to come together to craft a different version that both purists and newcomers will enjoy. Mentioned previously, Caterina Scorsone plays the titular Alice in Wonderland. When asked about the attraction to the characters she explains, “The attraction was manifold. Alice in Wonderland is a classic piece of literature and I was sent Nick's script and it was incredible. Not only does it have the classic characters and the theme of the books, but it's re-imagined into this fantastic adventure, this journey of self-discovery for the character.” Scorsone explains that the script told it all, everything “jumped off the page” allowing her to imagine the fantastic journey with little effort. She also cited the depiction of Alice's humanity, something a lot of actors don't get to see explored in-depth. Scorsone mentions an intense rehearsal period for this movie that allowed her to deeper gain a hold on her character. She states, “We had this extensive rehearsal period so any of the challenges were explored in this safe rehearsal environment. The biggest challenge are we kind of covered everything in the script.” The said rehearsal also allowed her and director Willing to collaborate on the character of Alice and gain a deeper understanding, Scorsone elaborates, “Once we were in the rehearsal period there was a lot of discussion, Nick had a lot of ideas but was open to exploring what I brought to the character. There was so much in the script to discover but a lovely freedom to go beyond that or find an angle that wasn't as obvious.” Fans can explore Alice further by watching the miniseries December 6th and 7th at 9pm on Syfy. MORE television NEWS
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