Amazon MGM Developing Animated Mad Hatter Feature Based On Lewis Carroll’s Character

Amazon MGM Studios is developing an animated feature centered on the Mad Hatter, the eccentric tea-party host introduced in Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Scott Mosier, co-director of Illumination’s 2018 feature The Grinch, is attached to adapt the character for the new film.

Deadline reports that Adam Nagle will produce through Aniventure, the London-based company behind Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, Hitpig!, and Animal Farm. Plot details are being kept under wraps, and no director, cast, or release date has been announced.

Mosier is also known for his long association with filmmaker Kevin Smith, having produced Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and several of Smith’s other early features. In animation, he produced the 2013 comedy Free Birds before making his feature directorial debut on The Grinch alongside Yarrow Cheney. The Dr. Seuss adaptation earned more than $540 million worldwide.

The project will draw on Carroll’s original character rather than Disney’s versions of the Mad Hatter (seen above), played by Ed Wynn in the studio’s 1951 animated Alice in Wonderland and Johnny Depp in Tim Burton’s 2010 live-action adaptation and its 2016 sequel. Carroll’s books are in the public domain, leaving Amazon MGM and Aniventure free to develop their own interpretation of the character and Wonderland.