Whether the picture of Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter is for real and not a carefully 'tweaked' photo, the news that Depp will play The Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's new film Alice in Wonderland is certainly exciting.

Previous versions of the classic children's story about a little girl who falls down a rabbit hole and has a number of surrealistic experiences, have been largely disappointing, at least to me.

The worst version in my opinion was the Disney animated feature which seemed to lack the inspiration of other Disney classics, like Pinocchio, Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, and numerous others.

Martin short was one of the best Mad Hatters that I have seen in recent years.his television miniseries portrayal of the Lewis Carroll madcap Victorian had a craziness and funniness that only Short could bring to the role.

Johnny Depp is of a similar cast in that he brings to every role his own touch of genius -- -- witness his character Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean -- -- a highly popular and entertaining character who was 100% Depp.

I may be an optimist when it comes to Tim Burton (after all his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was like running fingers down a blackboard) but I think Depp will overcome any mis-placed directorial impositions of Burton's and bring to Carroll's Hatter the spark of invention, ingenuity, humor, and perhaps depth that this classic character deserves.