It's emerged that the new Tim Burton film 'Alice In Wonderland' will not be screened by Odeon cinemas in the UK, Ireland and Italy, following a disagreement with producing studio Disney over the length of time it will be shown at cinemas before a DVD is released.

The plan was to reduce the period in which the film could only be shown in cinemas from the standard seventeen weeks down to just twelve weeks, meaning that the movie would be out on DVD by the end of May. Odeon say this will "set a new benchmark, leading to a 12-week window becoming rapidly standard".

Cineworld cinemas have reached an independent agreement with Disney, and it's also understood that the Vue chain have also come to an arrangement with the studio. Disney say that their main reasons for reducing the seventeen week period are to avoid the chances of piracy having an impact on DVD sales. Presumably this could apply to almost any film, though. Bob Chapek, Disney's president of distribution, claims that the company remains "committed" to theatrical windows, but believes there's "need for exceptions to accommodate a shortened time-frame on a case-by-case basis".

Odeon, on the other hand, think that the narrowing of the window can only damage UK cinema owners. "The negative impact on cinema attendance that such a reduction in the window will have will threaten the continued existence of many cinemas, especially the smaller and medium-sized cinemas", they say.

The film's royal premiere will, however, still take place at the Odeon Leicester Square this week, as the company obviously wouldn't be keen to pull a charity event.