The movie isn’t scheduled for release until March of 2010, but the first stills released of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland look absolutely amazing.  I’m convinced that Burton must be slightly insane in that way that geniuses usually are.

Johnny Depp plays The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter is Queen of Hearts and the Snow Queen role is played by Anne Hathaway.  No picture has been released of Alice yet, but Australian actress Mia Wasikowska (best known for her role on HBO’s In Treatment) stars in the film.

If you click on this link to USA Today, it will take you to a really cool interactive site where you can scroll around a couple of the movie scenes.

Here’s a snapshot of helmetless Helena Bonham Carter tooling around London with her son, Billy Ray, and a friend.  I’d like to take a crack at this one.  How about “Note to person who told me I look like Helena Bonham Carter:  ‘Eff Off.’”

I’ve always thought that Helena Bonham Carter is one of the most beautiful women in showbusiness. She has a sultry sexiness that most women can’t pull off. But she is also really adept at making herself look ridiculous and unattractive.

Here, Carter accepts the Best Actress award for Sweeney Todd during the Jameson Empire Awards while wearing a spidernest hat–most likely given to her by husband Tim Burton– that has hatched tiny babies who’ve crawled down the mesh to hang about her head like a pig-pen-esque halo.

The hat was obviously pregnant, but I refuse to speculate on whether or not the actress wearing it is preggers as well. The picture makes it look as if she could be, but  the last time the 43-year-old actress became pregnant in 2007, she had to undergo fertility treatments, so it’s not likely.

The better half of Tim Burton popped out a baby girl this weekend.

“They are absolutely delighted they have a daughter,” Bonham Carter’s rep, Karon Maskill, said. “It’s a lovely Christmas present for the family.”

The couple already have a four-year-old son, Billy.