Curiouser

SPIN through the revolving doors of London’s Dorchester hotel and it’s like falling down a rabbit hole to find yourself in the weird world of Lewis Carroll. This journalistic Mad Hatter’s tea party features guests – led by Johnny Depp and director Tim Burton – as familiar to film fans as the Cheshire Cat and the Red Queen are to readers of Alice in Wonderland.

This isn’t so much Wonderland as Junketland where scribes from around the world gather to quiz the participants in the latest offering from the world of movies.

Burton, the director of such oddball movies as Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas, has added his film version to the 20-plus other offerings based on Lewis Carroll’s books.

Many of the characters in Alice had their origins from the time Carroll lived in Croft, near Darlington, where his father was rector and where a church carving was said to have inspired the Cheshire Cat.

Depp, working with Burton for the seventh time, goes further north to Scotland for his accent as the Mad Hatter.

His first brush with the Scottish accent was playing writer JM Barrie, in Finding Neverland.

“This guy,” he says talking about his Hatter, “was actually made up of different people, the extreme side of those people. So I wanted to go extremely dark and dangerous with a Scottish accent.” He pauses then adds: “I like wearing skirts too” – a reference to the kilt he wears at one point.

This is something that Carroll couldn’t have imagined. And goodness knows what he’d have made of some of the press questions put to Depp and the other actors from the international contingent. Perhaps it was a lostin- translation problem. After a particularly long and convoluted two-part question, a bemused and presumably jet-lagged Depp responded: “Could you repeat the first part, I’m still in St Louis?”

The feeling of being in an Alice-like Wonderland continued with questions asking if Depp made his own hats, who looked weirdest on set and who’s his favourite mad person.

That last one actually drew a decent answer.

“Tim, of course,” says Depp, of someone he considers one of the few true artists working in movies. “Why? He gives me jobs sometimes.

It’s a madness that works for me. At the risk of embarrassing him I’ve always admired Tim for his commitment to his vision, the impossibility of compromise and doing exactly what he wanted in his own very unique way.”

He’s good, too, at explaining his Mad Hatter’s origins. It all goes back to “those weird cryptic touches” that Carroll dropped in, like the Hatter saying he’s investigating things beginning with the letter M. Go through the books, says the actor, and you won’t find the answer to that idea.

His research on real hatters discovered hatters’ disease, resulting from the mercury used to glue hats together. The poison manifested itself in different ways, through personality disorders to a Tourette’s-style illness.

He recalls reading the book when he was a child, and then the Disney cartoon version took over. “What I remember more than anything, because the story is so episodic and abstract and all over the place, are the characters.

They stuck with me and even people who’ve not read the book know all these characters.”

This level of normality didn’t last, with a potentially controversial subject introduced, but swiftly defused by a diplomatic Burton. What did he think of the Odeon cinema chain’s decision to show Alice In Wonderland after previously announcing a boycott over Disney’s DVD release policy to shorten its cinema shelf life?

“I’m glad it’s resolved,” he says. “We made a 3D film to be shown on 3D screens. I’m happy and grateful. I have nothing but happiness.”

Of course, 3D is the in-thing for moviemakers, although Burton uses it wonderfully well to give his already visually stunning Alice a depth and in-your-face attitude that adds to the film, rather than seeming like a gimmick.

Advances in computer generated effects mean that everything Carroll imagined can now be conjured up for all to see. Alas, CGI can’t prevent international journalists attacking the panel like a fire-breathing jabberwocky let loose by the Red Queen.

REPEATED questions about Depp and Burton’s working relationship degenerates into stories about nappy-changing.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard Depp give forth on the subject, although he resists bringing out his baby photographs.

He attributes his success to luck. “It’s amazing people still hire me after some of the stuff I’ve got away with,” he says.

“There was no way to predict Pirates Of The Caribbean. Prior to that I was labelled, they used to call me box office poison which I was kind of okay with. Then Pirates happened and Tim doesn’t have to fight with the studios to get me a gig any more, which he did with studios many years before.”

Alice is convinced she’s dreaming during her adventures in Wonderland, so Depp can’t be allowed to leave until he’s confessed his dreams during shooting.

“Oh, they were hideous,” he says. “I have a tendency to have somewhat dark dreams. I can’t remember specifically any that plagued me during the filming, but I don’t think it had anything to do with the film.”

He was probably worrying about the nightmare of doing an international press junket.

■ Alice in Wonderland (PG) opens in cinemas on March 5