Tim Burton’s fantastical new 3D film Alice in Wonderland won’t open in theaters until next Friday March 5 but the film had its world premiere in Odeon Leicester Square in London, England earlier today … kicking off the film’s final PR push leading up to the film’s release. Here are a few photos from the red green carpet arrivals at today’s Wonderland premiere:

Maybe it’s just her natural complexion or she wanted to bring an element of her character to tonight’s proceedings. Whatever the reason, Anne Hathaway decided on a pale and interesting look as she attended the Royal World Premiere of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland in London tonight. The actress, who plays The White Queen in the new 3D movie, looked stunning in a brown sparkly dress, which showed off her white skin beautifully. Despite her strapless dress, she braved the cold and wet weather, which is pretty much guaranteed whenever there’s a red carpet event in London at this time of the year. And a little thing like the rain was certainly not going to stop the stars of the film attending the premiere of the acclaimed director’s new celluloid offering. Burton arrived arm-in-arm with actress partner Helena Bonham-Carter, who plays the foul-tempered monarch the Queen of Hearts, and had accessorised her outfit with red heart earrings and had sewn silver hearts into her dress. Johnny Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter, was one of the first to arrive in Leicester Square in London, dressed quite somberly compared to his on-screen alter-ego. The 46-year-old actor, looked rather dapper in a black suit and white open-necked shirt as he posed for pictures outside the venue. Ironically, the film is being premiered at the Odeon cinema, part of the cinema chain that initially refused to screen the film after a row with Disney over the early planned release of the DVD … Thankfully, the dispute was resolved today just in time for tonight’s premiere.

And so … the countdown is on for the much-anticipated release of Alice in Wonderland! Today’s premiere from London was broadcast live online so that fans from around the world could watch the celebs make their way down the rain-soaked carpet … I watched a bit of it but it wasn’t all that interesting. I’m totally focused on the film itself. David and I will be attending an early screening of the film next week at the El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Blvd. and I am SO excited!! Wee!! Can’t wait!!

[Photo credit: Wireimage; Source]

Last night the principal stars of the new movie version of Alice In Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton, surprised fans online and in person by appearing at a fan event sponsored by Disney and My Space at the Hollywood and Highland Complex in Hollywood, CA to preview the film and the film’s soundtrack. As you might imagine, Johnny Depp (who plays The Mad Hatter in Wonderland) garnered the biggest cheers from the crowd when he was brought out on stage:

The anticipation is building for the release of Tim Burton’s fantastical Alice in Wonderland and fans of the movie were treated to a sneak preview of the film AND a special surprise appearance from Johnny Depp Friday night in Hollywood. Looking dashing in his trademark tinted glasses and a scarf, Johnny Depp was greeted by deafening screams as he stood on stage at the Alice in Wonderland Fan Event at the Hollywood and Highland complex. Depp plays the Mad Hatter in the film and he was joined by director Tim Burton and fellow co-stars Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas and Anne Hathaway. Sponsored by MySpace, the event featured performances from four featured artists who performed their songs from the soundtrack “Almost Alice.” Rocking out to a packed audience, 3OH!3, Metro Station, Kerli and Never Shout Never ramped up the anticipation for the appearance of the film’s stars. The 3D fantasy adventure Alice in Wonderland hits theaters on March 5.

Disney had been hyping last night’s event all day long on Twitter … to be honest, had I known the event would feature the stars in person, I might’ve braved the rain to attend myself. After the jump, check out photos of some of the other Wonderland stars on stage last night …

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Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and others were joined by author J.K. Rowling at the London premiere of the newest Harry Potter film The Half-Blood Prince at Leicester Square last night. Despite the buckets of rain that fell all night long, hundreds of fans came out to catch a glimpse or score an autograph of their fave Harry Potter stars as they walked the red carpet last night. Here are a few pics from the arrivals last night along with some info from the event:

If Potions Professor Horace Slughorn had mixed a brew to conjure up torrential rain, the weather could not have been worse for the premiere of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Dedicated fans braved thunder, lightning and Biblical downpours in London’s Leicester Square to catch a glimpse of the film’s stars arriving at the opening of the sixth film in the wildly popular “Harry Potter” franchise. While dreadful weather has become an unfortunate tradition at Potter premieres (it rained during the 2007 premiere of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”), the latest installment holds something new for fans. “The Half-Blood Prince” offers up an uncommonly large helping of humor as Harry, Hermione and Ron enter their sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. “I think this film’s funnier,” said star Daniel Radcliffe who plays the titular young hero. “There are a couple of moments which I laughed out loud at.” Hormones are also running high inside the castle walls, with romances blossoming between some of the formerly chaste characters. But, says director David Yates, for all the romance and humor, the film still has a very dark side. “It is a bit bipolar,” Yates told CNN. “On the one hand, there’s all this snogging and romance and on the other hand people are getting killed and bridges are being blown up.” “The humor is there to kind of leaven the intensity of what happens later on in the movie,” he added. If the latest Harry Potter installment treads more adult terrain, it’s not just because the three lead actors — who started as unknown children — have grown up. The three have amassed huge fortunes and international recognition off the back of the films. Daniel Radcliffe wowed Broadway by going nude in “Equus,” Emma Watson has become the face of Burberry and Rupert Grint recently hit the headlines with a dose of swine flu. A dark storyline runs through the core of “The Half-Blood Prince”: The ascendancy of the malevolent Lord Voldemort threatens the wizarding world, while tragic events provide some genuinely scary moments and spell the end of childhood for Harry and the others. “I think it’s aimed at a slightly older audience,” says Emma Watson, 19, who plays bookish heroine Hermione Granger in the franchise. “I think the films have grown up with the audience” … Fans have had to wait an extra eight months for the latest installment after Warner Bros (which, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner) delayed the release of the movie after the success of “The Dark Knight” to spread out its blockbusters. It is estimated the film cost $250 million to make. The last film, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” came out in 2007 and took $938 million at the box office worldwide. The five films have so far made $4.5 billion in worldwide box office, making it the most successful movie franchise in history. The Harry Potter franchise is based on the best-selling series of books by British writer J.K Rowling. The first film, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” directed by Chris Columbus, was released in 2001.

OMG RELEASE THIS MOVIE ALREADY!!! We still have about a week left to wait for the film to hit theaters and I’m already freakin’ out about it. The Harry Potter story gets seriously serious in Half-Blood Prince and I can’t wait to see it on the big screen. Even tho those Londoners had to get soaked to the bone at last night’s premiere, I envy that they’ve been able to see the film already. I can’t even wait any more … Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens in theaters on July 15. Are y’all as excited as I am?

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]

A couple weeks ago we got our first look at the amazing promo photos that have been released from Tim Burton’s new film Alice In Wonderland, featuring the beloved literary characters The Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp), The Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter), The White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway) and more. The new issue of Vanity Fair magazine, the one with Heath Ledger on the cover, features another look at the full-size promo photos:

These photos are the same ones we saw previously but VF mag does publish the full-size photographs that the Technicolored promo pics were based on. After the jump, check them out for yourselves …

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Last November we got our very FIRST LOOK at Johnny Depp in full make-up and costume as The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s new film, Alice in Wonderland. Today, we get to see a whole slew of new promo photos from the upcoming Disney film including finished character art of Depp as The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen, Anne Hathaway as The White Queen and Matt Lucas as Tweedledee & Tweedledum. First up, tho, check out these very cool-looking promo pics from the film of Wonderland itself:

Burton gave us a grief-wracked demon barber in 2007’s Sweeney Todd and oodles of Oompa Loompas in 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now one of Hollywood’s most visually creative directors layers his own surreal sensibilities upon the fanciful world of Lewis Carroll in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, due in theaters on March 5, 2010. This first look at some of the concept art for the film suggests there is the usual Burton dark magic afoot.

Yes, yes … these images are really beautiful and hint at a more sinister Wonderland than we may be accustomed to … but it is the character art that really gives you a good feel for the tone of the film. After the jump, check out the amazing promo images of The Mad Hatter, The Red Queen, The White Queen and The Tweedles …

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Yesterday we got our first look at Helena Bonham Carter in the role of Bellatrix Lestrange on the London set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows … and today we get to see a few more pics from the set. This time, we get to see principal stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Emma Watson (Hermoine Granger) chillin’ on the set in between takes … and another photo of Bellatrix being her usual evil self:

There are other more spoilery photos but I don’t want to post too many pics this early in the filming. We’ve got plenty of time to see little teaser pics from the set. Deathly Hallows is going to be an epic film, I can just feel it. The book itself is too huge to be contained by just one movie. The film will prolly be the one Harry Potter movie that will contain almost all of the best bits from the book. Previously, the films had to cut content to fit in the time constraints. This 2 part film will have lots of time to do the final Harry Potter book justice. But … while all of this Hallows talk is very exciting, we still have The Half-Blood Prince to look forward to this Summer. So much Harry Potter!! Woot!

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Production has begun on the first part of the new film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the UK this month and Helena Bonham Carter, who plays the wickedly evil Bellatrix Lestrange, was spotted on the set of the film in Pembrokeshire, Wales lookin’ about as fierce as can be … behold:

Bellatrix is deffo the HBIC in Voldermort’s army of minions. She is absolutely one of my favorite characters. I cannot imagine anyone else playing the role of Bellatrix other than Helena Bonham Carter, mostly because Bellatrix at her most dastardly is pretty much what Helena looks like on a daily basis. She rules! I hope we get to see more from the set of Harry Potter as filming continues in the weeks to come.

[Photo credit: INFdaily]