Craven, who directed the Scream series of movies and launched Freddy Krueger in Nightmare on Elm Street, said he is close to making a big screen adaptation of the video game American McGhee's Alice.

McGhee has created some of the biggest selling video games in the US, including Doom and Quake.

His version of the Alice in Wonderland story features a grownup Alice taking on the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen.

'Big CGI picture'

Craven told the Sci Fi Channel: "It's very close to the game.

"Everything that we can take from the game, we will steal, and then we'll bring even more to it.

"I'm sure this will be a big CGI picture, and we'll try to duplicate as much of the sort of wonder part of the Wonderland as we can."

Craven made his directing debut in 1972 with Last House on the Left, but it was 1984's Nightmare on Elm Street which made his name.

After a series of movies which did not set the box office alight, Craven made his comeback with Scream in 1996, a scary spoof of slasher films.

Two sequels followed and the series took more than $300m (�207m) at the US box office alone.

Flop

Craven will be hoping his take on Alice will not repeat the fate of Final Fantasy.

The movie, also based on a video game, boasted state-of-the-art technology which featured a cast consisting entirely of computer generated 'realistic' looking humans and CGI graphics.