TELEVISION: Sci Fi Channel Casts Bates, Scorsone as ‘Alice’ Leads!

The Sci Fi Channel today announced the casting of the leads for its four-hour movie event that is scheduled for a December, 2009, premiere. This updating of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland will star Kathy Bates [Charlotte’s Web, Revolutionary road] as the Queen of Hearts and Caterina Scorsone [1-800-Missing, the upcoming Edge of Darkness – pictured] as Alice.

Scorsone

In this take on Carroll’s classic, Alice is a fiercely independent twenty-something who finds herself on the wrong side of a mirror. As the press release pits it, “She is a stranger in an outlandish city of twisted towers and casinos built out of playing cards, all under the rule of a deliciously devilish Queen who’s not very happy about Alice’s arrival.”

Rounding out the cast of the mini-series, which has just begun shooting in Vancouver, B.C., are: Tim Curry [Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Colour of Magic] as Dodo, Colm Meany [The Commitments, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine] as the King of Hearts, Matt Frewer [Watchmen, Eureka] as the White Knight, Philip Winchester [Crusoe] as Jack of Hearts, Andrew Lee Potts [Primeval] as Hatter, Alessandro Juliani [Battlestar Galactica], as 9 of Clubs, Timothy Webber [Men in Trees, Taken] as Carpenter, Alex Diakun [Sanctuary, The X-Files: I Want to Believe], Zak Santiago [Driven to Kill, Young Blades], and Eugene Lipinski [Animorphs, Intelligence] as Doctors Dee and Dum.

The writer/director is Nick Willing, director of Sci Fi’s Emmy-winning Tin Man. Executive Producers for Alice are: Matthew O’Connor and Lisa Richardson from Reunion Pictures, Jamie Brown from Studio Eight and RHI Entertainment’s Robert Halmi, Sr. and Robert Halmi, Jr.