Tim Burton and Johnny Depp have been whipping up lots of early excitement at Comic-Con for "Alice in Wonderland," but we wonder: how will it do at the Oscars?

Forget the Comic-Con hoopla for a sec. Get back to Oscar reality. Even though the Academy Awards are expanding the list of best-picture contenders to 10 next year, "Alice in Wonderland" has a triple curse: it's a fantasy film (strike one), based upon a children's story (strike two) directed by Tim Burton (strike three). Make that four curses. It's slotted for release at a most Oscar-unfriendly time: March 2010.

Burton has never been nominated for best director and none of his movies has even been up for best picture, not even "Sweeney Todd," which won best picture and actor (Depp) at the Golden Globes and was hailed by the New York Times as "something close to a masterpiece." Granted, Depp did reap a best-actor bid from academy voters for "Sweeney," but the only other major Oscar recognition earned by Burton flicks were nominations for best animated film for "The Corpse Bride" and a win in the supporting-actor slot for Martin Landau ("Ed Wood"). Other Oscar bids and occasional wins (best makeup, "Ed Wood") were in the tech categories.

Photos: Walt Disney Pictures

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