Daily Variety reports that Marcus Nispel, director of the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, has signed on to helm the feature film based on American McGee’s Alice, a video game published by Electronic Arts. Sarah Michelle Gellar (The Grudge, TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is set to star in the twisted re-imagining of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale.
Firm Films and Collision Ent. are producing the adaptation, which was previously at Dimension before finding a new home at Universal. In McGee’s game, Alice looses her family in a catastrophic event and returns to a Wonderland populated by characters even creepier than Carroll’s original creations. McGee’s unique vision is being tailored for the big-screen by scribes Erich and Jon Hoeber.
McGee is now writing the first installment of a planned Warner Bros. film trilogy based on American McGee’s Oz, a toyline that is set to become a video game. A pseudo-prequel to what happens in L. Frank Baum’s original novels, McGee’s take on Oz is set way before Dorthy and Toto arrive, focusing instead on a reluctant hero who comes to save the enchanted world. The filmmakers plan to blend live-action with a heavy CG element. In addition to the screenplay, McGee is writing a novel based on the concept.
The recent film deals should place McGee on firm ground in Hollywood as he shops American McGee’s Grimm, a screenplay he wrote that’s set in the world of the Brothers Grimm fairytales.
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