American McGee looks for help snaring Alice: Otherlands film rights
American McGee wants to bring Alice back, but in a new form: as an animated film. A fresh Kickstarter from McGee's studio, Spicy Horse, seeks to purchase the film rights to the Alice games, which are owned by Collision Entertainment, a group of Hollywood producers, McGee tells VG24/7. All the negotiations are done, and now all McGee needs is the cash.
The Alice: Otherlands Kickstarter asks for $200,000 and promises, at a minimum, "an animated adventure into Otherlands," with a big-screen adaptation of Otherlands as a long-term goal. The film's premise remains the same as its game counterpart, starring Alice as she roams London, entering the Wonderlands within other people's heads on a quest to defeat an encroaching evil. She may enter the mental landscapes of people such as Jules Verne, Thomas Edison, Jack the Ripper, Mark Twain, Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin, for example.
The Kickstarter covers film only, not the production of another Alice game; those rights are still tied up at EA. The campaign follows Spicy Horse's cancelled Kickstarter, OZombie, which raised $141,513 of its $950,000 goal and had three weeks remaining. McGee stopped that project to take advantage of the Alice film opportunity.
There's a limited window for McGee to purchase the film rights from Collision Entertainment; once that time expires, the rights will enter the open market. Collision approached McGee first, a move the group didn't have to make.
"This is a kindness on their part – they could have gone straight to market and highest bidder, but they told me they think the rights belong with the creator of the property – me," McGee says. "I think they're right about this. I'd hate to see the rights end up in the hands of some faceless corporation or other entity with no emotional connection to the property."
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Alice: Otherlands Kickstarter from American McGee Now Live
Campaign seeks funds for acquisition of Alice film rights
Spicy Horse Games, the creative force behind Akaneiro: Demon Hunters as well as American McGee's Grimm and Crazy Fairies announced today that the Kickstarter for the film rights for American McGee's Alice is now live.
Successful Kickstarter funding will lead to a series of animated films set in the world of Alice made famous in American McGee's Alice and American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns. Alice: Otherlands finds the eponymous heroine venturing into the psyches of famous folk populating London in 1875 including Jules Verne, Jack The Ripper, Charles Darwin, and Queen Victoria.
"The story ultimately comes down to one of the individual fighting against a corrupt system," said American McGee, CEO of Spicy Horse. "Of shining a light on the ultimate origins of psychological horror in our modern society. It's a question of highlighting the sort of society that creates mental illness, the powerful preying on the weak, subjugation of the masses through deception and manipulation and the driving forces who benefit from this kind of reality. It's also about finding f'd-up nightmarish creatures and kicking their butts back to hell."
Significant levels of funding may lead to a longer series of short films or potentially a feature-length film.
For more information on Alice: Otherlands, visit the Kickstarter page at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spicyhorse/alice-otherlands
