Warner Bros. gearing up for Wizard Of Oz update of some kind

By Michelle Welch  |  March 10, 2010 | 5:51pm
Aux Features Film

With the bewildering monster success of Alice In Wonderland over the weekend, Warner Bros. is now keen to plunder more of history’s timeless works of art and revamp them for the 3-D generation. The studio has set its sights for its next modern update on the acme of all beloved classics: The Wizard Of Oz. The Los Angeles Times reports Warner Bros. has set off a storm on the studio lot to get either of two pre-existing Wizard Of Oz remake projects into fast-tracked development, noting that representatives for top Hollywood directors have been alerted.

The first of the two projects in contention has Spawn creator Todd MacFarlane attached as a producer, and a script penned by A History of Violence scribe Josh Olson, which has Dorothy’s granddaughter travel to Oz to fight evil. A dark tone is a given here. The second project in the running is a screenplay simply named Oz, currently held at Warner Bros.’ New Line label, which boasts of—wait for it—the screenwriting talents of Darren Lemke, notable for his contribution to the upcoming Shrek Forever After, and is backed by production company Temple Hill, which has shepherded the Twilight series. Should we even let the notion enter our minds: KStew as Dorothy?

With Harry Potter concluding within the next year, Warner Bros. needs a new anchor, and L. Frank Baum wrote a whole series about the Land of Oz. These projects are of course in competition with Universal’s long-planned film adaptation of Wicked, the popular novel and musical of the same name that may one day happen when the rights are finally free.

 
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