NBC’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’-inspired pilot pushed back

Sad news for all of you hoping that NBC’s upcoming take on “Alice in Wonderland,” based on the work of Lewis Carroll rather than some of the Disney movies. According to a new report from Deadline, the pilot (which is produced by “CSI” creator Anthony Zuiker) is still ordered … but there is catch.

Thanks to some of the high costs associated with this pilot, which includes a lengthy amount of time needed in order to produce some visual effects, it will not be ready in time for the upcoming upfront presentation in May. It is possible that the show could shoot its first episode still during this time, and a decision on the show could ultimately be made a little bit later this year once network executives determine whether or not they like it.

One fair comparison with this project would be to “Mockingbird Lane,” the take on “The Munsters” that actually underwent a number of creative tweaks over the course of several years. Unfortunately, this pilot was almost completely scrapped at one point before airing as a Halloween special; then, it was canceled outright as the network did not feel happy enough with its ratings performance vs. its high cost.

The latter will certainly be in consideration for NBC, as we are starting to get to the point where fairy tales are starting to over-saturate the market a little bit with “Once Upon a Time” and “Grimm” already on the scene. Even though this is a very big-name project we are talking about here, we imagine that it will take an out-of-this-world pilot for the network to actually take a leap on ordering thirteen episodes.

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Photo: NBC