Sarah Michelle Gellar

The long-awaited film take on the Joysticked accessory "Alice" is finally about to get underway, with a lemon-haired ex-vampire slayer inheriting the first mate’s quarters.

Sarah Michelle Gellar will star in Universal’s twisted take of the Lewis Carroll classic, says Variety.

The project - originally set up at Dimension - will be directed by Marcus Nispel, the man who yanked Leatherface out of retirement for the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" redo.

In "Alice", adapted by Erich and Jon Hoeber, the title character (Um, that’d be the Buffster) returns to a dark and dangerous Wonderland after the murder of her family and the destruction of the family abode. It’s in Wonderland that Alice must confront her fears before she can return to - and again, what’s the definition of.. - a ’normal’ life.

A film version of the game, created by American McGee, has been in the works since 2001, at which time Wes Craven announced his plans to bring it to the screen. "Everything that we can take from the game, we will steal, and then we’ll bring even more to it. I’m sure this will be a big CGI picture, and we’ll try to duplicate as much of the sort of wonder part of the Wonderland as we can", Craven said at the time.

Those rumoured for the part of the foxy heroine at the time were Eliza Dushku, Heather Donahue ["Blair Witch Project"] and Natalie Portman.

In 2002, It was announced that Milla Jovovich was in talks to play Alice. She said back when that, "I’m actually meeting with Wes Craven’s people to talk about what they want to do because they have the rights to Alice." As far as I knew, she’s always been attached. Ah, but Buffy’s got a bigger stake, hasn’t she now? On ya Scooter Mill.

From Reuters.com :

Gellar game for Alice in Wonderland movie

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sarah Michelle Gellar is attached to star in a feature version of the Electronic Arts video game "American McGee’s Alice," which is itself based on Lewis Carroll’s "Alice in Wonderland" novels.

In the game, Alice has grown up to become a disturbed young woman. After her parents are killed in a fire, Alice returns to Wonderland, a dark and threatening place of looking glasses, mysterious potions, nonsensical tea parties and talking animals, confronting her fears and the wicked Queen of Hearts.

The film, "Alice," is set up at Universal Pictures, where it will be directed by Marcus Nispel, who shot the recent update of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Gellar’s recent credits include "The Grudge" and the "Scooby Doo" films.

"American McGee’s Alice" became a critically acclaimed hit on the PC when it shipped in December 2000. The game received an 83% aggregate review score on Gamerankings.com, which helped Electronic Arts sell more than 488,000 units of the game and generate more than $11.8 million in revenue, consulting firm NPD Group said. The game was created by American McGee, a lead designer of the "Quake" and "Doom" series.

That same month, Dimension Films optioned the movie rights to "Alice" from Electronic Arts; horror veteran Wes Craven was attached to produce and direct.