Ace director Subhash Ghai's latest discovery, British actress Antonia Bernath, has been signed to play the lead role in an updated Hollywood version of Lewis Caroll's "Alice in Wonderland".

Apparently, the director of this venture, Jeremy Tarr, was bowled over after seeing Antonia's work in Ghai's upcoming period film "Kisna".

In the Hollywood movie, to be distributed by MGM, Antonia will be cast opposite a host of stalwarts including English actor Jonathon Pryce ("Tomorrow Never Dies", "Evita" and "Ronin") and sultry actress Daryl Hannah ("Kill Bill" Vol. 1 & 2, "Steel Magnolias" and "Splash"). American rock star Marilyn Manson is also part of the cast.

The film is a British-German co-production, to be shot extensively in Berlin and South Africa.

Antonia was picked by Subhash Ghai straight from drama school to play the female lead role in Mukta Arts' ambitious period epic "Kisna", alongside Vivek Oberoi.

She flew down to India in January and shot for the film over seven months in locales in north India as well as Mumbai. Antonia plays a young British aristocrat of colonial India in the 1940s. During trouble during the collapse of the British Raj, a villager named Kisna (Vivek Oberoi) rescues her.

The "Kisna" cast also includes Isha Shravani along with Michael Maloney, Caroline Langrishe and Polly Adams.

The cast is supported with a talented team that includes Hrishita Bhatt, Amrish Puri, Om Puri and Rajat Kapur. The music has been composed by A.R. Rahman and Ismail Darbar and lyrics are by Javed Akhtar.

"Kisna" has been simultaneously shot in both the Hindi and English to reach out to a wider audience across the world. The film created a stir at the Cannes Film Festival where Ghai released the publicity campaign. The Hindi version is slated for a December release.