'Alice' to get IMAX release next March

LOS ANGELES, April 1 (UPI) -- Disney's live-action version of "Alice in Wonderland" will be released in U.S. IMAX 3D theaters March 5, 2010, IMAX Corp. announced.

The film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen and Mia Wasikowska as Alice. It will be released to IMAX theaters simultaneously with the film's wide release.

"If ever there was a film that cried out to be presented in Disney Digital 3D and the premium IMAX 3D format, Tim Burton's fantastic interpretation of 'Alice in Wonderland' is that film," Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group, said in a statement. "This is going to be an eye-popping cinematic experience as Tim takes moviegoers down the rabbit hole and into the dimensional world filled with incredible characters, sly humor, and wild adventures."

"We think that Disney's new 'Alice in Wonderland' is exactly the type of 3D storytelling that will resonate with IMAX audiences," IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-Chief Executive Officers Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler added in a statement. "We believe our worldwide commercial theater network will be approximately 50 percent larger by the time this film is released, giving more and more people a chance to experience the magic of Disney in IMAX."