Per the Hollywood Reporter, the director of contemporary macabre has signed a new two-picture deal with the Walt Disney Company, the studio that launched his career, that will see him helm a pair of 3-D movies--a big-screen version of Lewis Carroll's classic novel, Alice in Wonderland, and a remake of his own famous short, Frankenweenie.

"They have 'instant classic' written all over them and will certainly entertain audiences worldwide for years to come," Disney chairman Dick Cook told the trade. "Tim is one of the most dynamic and creative storytellers of our time, and having him back at Disney is just great."

Burton will get to work on Alice first. Taking a page from Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf, the film will combine live-action with state-of-the-art performance capture and be released in Disney digital 3-D.

Carroll's tale is being adapted by Linda Woolverton, the scribe whose credits include the Mouse House mega-hit 'toons The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

The project will be produced by former Disney and Revolution Studios chairman Joe Roth with Jennifer and Suzanne Todd and Richard Zanuck, the veteran producer who previously collaborated with the filmmaker on 2001's Planet of the Apes, 2003's Big Fish, 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the upcoming Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, arriving in theaters Dec. 21.

Lensing on Alice is set to get underway early next year and wrap in May, just before a potential strike by the Screen Actors Guild once their contract expires in June.

As for Frankenweenie, Burton intends to shoot that movie in stop-motion animation in the same vein of his previous hits, 1993's The Nightmare Before Christmas and 2005's The Corpse Bride. And like Alice, it will also be released in 3-D.

Like its half-hour predecessor, the flick is a horror comedy re-telling of the Frankenstein legend revolving around young Victor and his pet dog Sparky. When Sparky is hit by a car, the aptly named youth decides to bring him back to life, only to see the pooch wreak havoc on the neighborhood.

Burton has had a long relationship with Disney, having gotten his start in showbiz when the company awarded him an animation scholarship to California Institute of the Arts.

He subsequently went to work for Disney as an apprentice animator working on The Fox and the Hound, and made several shorts including the stop-motion Vincent and Frankenweenie for the studio. He last worked with Disney on 1994's Ed Wood.

Given the time and labor involved in the stop-motion animation process, Frankenweenie isn't likely to unspool until 2009 at the earliest.