Marilyn Manson stepped into the wonderland of the Movenpick Hotel's banqueting room to give journalists and distributors a glimpse of "Phantasmagoria," his first outing as a feature film director and lead actor.

The pic, which Manson hopes will "redefine the horror genre and put it back to where it once began with people like Roman Polanski" will tell the story of Lewis Carroll, the creator of the children's classic "Alice in Wonderland."

"It's more of an intellectual and arty version of horror and it's very exciting," added Brit fashion model Lily Cole, who was also present at the press conference and who is set to play Alice. Manson himself will tackle the role of Carroll.

Wild Bunch, which is putting together the pic and which has been encouraging Manson to take the director's chair for the last five years, showed a short teaser, that Manson and his co-writer Anthony Silva had helmed.

The short clip featured the usual mix of sexual deviance and beautifully lensed gothic aesthetic, which Manson has become known for.

Wearing black lipstick and looking and sounding a lot like Edward Scissorhands, Manson says that his fascination with Carroll stems from the many parallels he's discovered between the writer and himself.

"A lot of people think of Carroll as a paedophile but he was actually a man tied to his childhood, and when he realized that he had nothing left that was linking him to his childhood, he died."

This will be the Strangeland of the 00's.

At one time I would have thought he could have pulled it off. Regardless of what your opinion of him or his music might be, the man is visually inclined. I can see him either being totally bizaare with it and making something completely strange (this would be the desired route) or trying to straddle making an "artsy" film and a commercial one and ending up with garbage. I guess it just depends on the amount of cocaine involved.

So horror began with Roman Polanski, eh?

Anyway, I think this should be interesting. Hopefully it doesn't turn out like House of 1000 Corpses, though.

Could be good, I have respect for MM and I really don't know why, maybe it's that he seems pretty smart and respectable when he appears in public. I'll go see this if it looks good.

I don't think it'll be anything like either of Zombie's movies, but if I enjoy it as much as I did Corpses I would be more than satisfied.

I thought HO1KC was pretty bad, but, as you know, he totally redeemed himself with Rejects. Totally different types of movies though.

I thought this was going to be about this computer video game that had so much hype back in the early 90s, however it sucked.

They are making a movie about logician named Charles Dodgson?

alright.

You know my feelings on House, and I think if Manson can come up with something good enough on his first try to warrant a second attempt, he could end up making some interesting work. I know he's big on El Topo...

...which I still haven't seen.