Tuesday 23 February 2010

Curiouser and Curiouser: The Genius Of Alice In Wonderland

Tomorrow night I shall be hosting a very special event at the British Library in London, home to the original manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, Lewis Carroll's handwritten, hand-drawn manuscript that became Alice In Wonderland.

Celebrating Alice in words, conversation and film, there will be readings from Michael Sheen, Matt Lucas and Christopher Lee, an appreciation of Carroll's work by Will Self, a screening of the restored 1903 film version, plus a Q&A with Alice In Wonderland producers Richard Zanuck and Joe Roth, alongside Sheen, Lucas and Lee.

Original Manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground - Alice eats cake and grows tall (British Library)Images from Alice's Adventures Under Ground

8 comments:

Gerard said...

Oh, wow. So jealous of all this amazing stuff on your end of late. Brilliant work on your part! Hopefully there'll be some interesting things on at, oh, say the end of next May...

Meanwhile, just read on the excellent McSweeney's iPhone app today about an unproduced 1945 Aldous Huxley screenplay commissioned by Disney which, if produced, would have been a live-action/animation amalgam, part Carroll biography, part adaptation of his Alice stories. Someone needs to make that thing available online.

Can we expect further thoughts from you re. Alice once the embargo lifts after the premiere? Maybe that'll be the film to get me off my butt and back into the fray...

Karen at Johnny Depp Reads said...

This event sounds like a really great experience Mark, what an honor for you! I hope we'll get to hear more about it from you and I also look forward to some reports about the premiere. Several members of my website will be there wanting your autograph. :)

~Karen

Mark Salisbury said...

@ Gerard

That Huxley collaboration sounds intriguing. I'm going to have to download that app myself.

I'm planning a few more Alice related posts over the next week or so, so stayed tuned.

I may well try and put down some thoughts re: Alice once the embargo's lifted, after tomorrow night's world premiere, although I probably won't write a review as such.

End of next May? Sorry, I'm being dense...

@ Karen

I'm sure I'll do some kind of write up post event, although I'm sure there will be more famous folk than me to ask for their autograph :)

Gerard said...

The McSweeney's app is arguably my favourite app I've come across so far. Great content, simple, appealing interface.

And brilliant - can't wait! A week until I'll be seeing it now, and then, but three short weeks until I make wings for the MoMA.

And to be honest, given all of your time on set and insider's eye, I think a more casual account of your thoughts would actually be of greater interest (personally) than a review proper. So looking forward to that!

As for next May, not being dense at all - I might well be in your neck of the woods around then, and it would be great to be able to catch you in your element!

Gerard said...

PS: Shout out!

Mark Salisbury said...

Be great to meet up, should you wash up in Blighty.

And thanks for the "shout out", too.

I saw that photo of Rachel Portman on Romanek's photo blog the other day and had meant to link to it. Great choice of composer.

Gerard said...

Blighty, you say? I'll make it a priority!

And totally agree re. Portman. So. Can't. Wait.

Karen at Johnny Depp Reads said...

Hope you didn't get too wet, our people there said it was pretty miserable waiting out, I think they were there about 10 hours.

Can't wait to read your write up!