Syfys Alice

It's hard for me to get excited about something like Alice, Syfy's twisted new take on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. NBC and Syfy seemingly produce these modern versions of classic tales for the same reason Hollywood studios push out stale remakes and sequels – because they already have a built in audience. And the producers don't have to worry about coming up with an original story. All they have to do is force some contempo quirkiness into the age-old text and be done with it. (Make the flamingos flying machines! Turn the caterpillar into a hookah-smoking Harry Dean Stanton!)

Similar to Syfy's Tin Man, its dark and tedious Wizard of Oz redo, Alice offers a bizarre retread of its classic source material. But writer-director Nick Willing (the brains behind Tin Man) smartly sets his tale in a futuristic version of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland. And he's created a brand new Alice too. She's a tough twentysomething brunette who teaches martial arts and high-kicks bad guys in the face.

'Alice in Wonderland' fans have been eagerly awaiting Tim Burton's big screen live-action version for what feels like an eternity, and its release is still three months away. Luckily, there's another new take on the trippy classic out now: 'Alice,' a Syfy original miniseries (two-night premiere Sun., Dec. 6, and Mon., Dec. 7, 9PM ET).

Starring Caterina Scorsone as the titular Alice and Philip Winchester as her mysterious suitor Jack Chase, this reimagining looks at the tale from an entirely new and modern angle, much the way Syfy (then Sci Fi) did with 'Tin Man' a couple of years back. Not surprisingly, it's seen through the warped looking glass of the same director, Nick Willing.

AOL TV got Scorsone and Winchester to dish all about their parts in 'Alice,' how it's "darker" and "sexier" than the original, their costars -- including Tim Curry, Harry Dean Stanton and Kathy Bates -- and why filming in an abandoned tuberculosis hospital was just as creepy as it sounds.

Click in to watch the full interview ...

The producers of Tin Man, Syfy's dark and splashy spin on The Wizard of Oz, are back with Alice, a twisted take on Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In a conference call with reporters, Alice director Nick Willing and star Caterina Scorsone talked flying flamingos, Tweedledee and Tweedledum's torture tactics, and what Wonderland would look like 150 years after Alice's original adventure.

We'll have an advance review of Alice soon, but for now you can head after the jump for an inside look at the miniseries, premiering December 6 on Syfy. Spoilers follow.