No surprise: Linda Woolverton writing MALEFICENT for Tim Burton

Disney have hired "Alice in Wonderland" writer Linda Woolverton to adapt "Maleficent", the revisionist fantasy that revolves around the evil queen from "Sleeping Beauty". Back in January, we heard the movie was being developed for dead-end director Tim Burton (RIP: 1988 - 2010), so Woolverton's hiring, and Disney's attempts to "recreate magic" is a surprise to nobody. It's sad that not only are the events, the look, the characters and feel of Tim Burton's movies, so highly predictable these days; now too are his choice of projects and the talent hiring phases. The Hollywood Reporter do remind us... that "Maleficent" is only one of several projects that the kooky/loony vet is circling for his post-"Frankenweenie 3-D" movie, which is getting underway right now. Although THR don't mention it, we presume his potential future films to be "Dark Shadows" (though we've heard script problems have blighted that project) and the recently announced stop-motion 3-D version of "The Addams Family" (which despite MTV's retraction piece, it's clear from the wording that it remains a legit possibility for him). And then of course there's any amount of other classic pieces of children's literature that he can get his hands on to revise and translate into Burton-speak. I'm guessing "Wizard of Oz", Oscar Wilde's "Canterville Ghost". Or hell, you could always just do a late sequel to "Beetlejuice". At the time of writing, "Alice in Wonderland" has earned $268 million domestic and $568 million worldwide; so despite it's large $200 million budget, the 3-D revisionist upgrade of one of their oldest properties has proved profitable for The Mouse and they will be desperate for Burton to return here. No small part of this is that they know with Burton attached, he's likely to bring Johnny Depp as Prince Charming, Helena Bonham Carter as Maleficient, Alan Rickman as her dastardly sidekick, etc, etc. I have spoke in length about "Maleficient" and the end of Tim Burton as a creative artist over the past several weeks so I won't tread old ground, except to say; MAKE... SOMETHING... NEW... FOR... GOD'S... SAKE. We never asked for these reinventions of stuff we grew up with; and we are sick of it. And slightly changing and upgrading old classics, or telling stories from a different p.o.v; don't count.