UPDATE: Let me confirm that Sam Raimi is set to direct Disney’s extravagant ‘Wizard of Oz’ 3D prequel. I understand that talks to hire Raimi for Oz: The Great And Powerful turned into a deal last night finalized by CAA. It’s a coup for new studio bosses Rich Ross and Sean Bailey, who are rolling the dice big-time by hoping that this pic will be a global hit like the billion-dollar-grossing Alice In Wonderland. “Robert Downey Jr. isn’t set yet. They are going to develop for him, if things go right. The script will be rewritten,” one of my sources says. “The movie will happen, though.” Downey would play the Wizard Of Oz before he became the Wizard Of Oz circa the 1939 iconic film: he’s in fact a circus wrangler transported by tornado to the mysterious world of Oz where he gets mistaken for a know-it-all. This will be Raimi’s first firm project since he exited Spider-Man 4, which prompted Sony Pictures to reboot the entire franchise earlier this year. Now the only question is whether Sam Raimi can do what Tim Burton just did.
He certainly can. Not worried about this at all… It’ll make Alice look like Catwoman
It’s a shame the screenwriters apparently never read the original Oz series of books, as the details are all wrong. The story of the wizard first coming to Oz has already been written, and it sounds nothing like this. If only screenwriters were more often true fans of the authors they base their work on.
ummmm, has anyone actually read the script? I agree the idea SOUNDS spectacular. But in classic Joe Roth style, and not dissimilar to the great and mighty -when you look behind the curtain, there’s nothing there. Joe buys an idea and never bothers to develop it fully. I have read the script, it needs WORRRRRK!!!!! I was hugely disappointed, and I know execs at other studios are scratching their heads as well. I’m sure they’ll thorw money in now and hire a better scribe to rewrite because Joe’s sense of quality begins and ends with CHRISTMAS WITH THE CRANKS, AMERICA’S SWEETHEARTS. HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE, GIGLE, and lets not forget THE WATER HORSE.
He lucked into Alice thanks to the good will and good nature of Team Todd. Now you’re on your own, Joe. And much richer. By the way, did you do a 50/50 split with the team that brought you Alice? From what I heard you did not. In fact, on the outside it sure looked like you singularly took the bows, when it’s inception had very little to do with you. You can’t hide behind Suzanne and Jen anymore.
We’ll all get to see what’s behind the great and mighty Joe very soon.
wow, you sound really bitter. you must work for the Todds.
Sounds spectacular? Actually, I think it sounds lame. Besides…the wizard was never really a wizard, remember? It was a dream a young girl had, imagining all her family, friends, and acquaintances were somewhere they, and she, never were.
Oh, well. I guess I’m just old and out of touch.
Actually, in the original Oz books the ruby slippers were real and allowed Dorothy to travel between Kansas and OZ and the wizard who originally was not a wizard became one, in part under the initial training of Glenda. There were about 24 books in all.
Close; fourteen books by Oz creator L. Frank Baum, 26 by commissioned successors including Ruth Plumly Thompson (the term “Famous Forty” is often used by fans of the books to describe this group) and a great number of pastiches and sequels by other hands since, a few of these with connections to Baum and/or his heirs.
As for the slippers: they were silver in Baum’s book (the story is that ruby was deemed more apt for the 1939 film due to Oz being in Technicolor) but only appeared once; all subsequent back-and-forth trips to Oz were managed by other means.
And as for the Wizard’s origins, the script as Nikki summarizes it isn’t too far from the few details Baum gives in The Land of Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz — and that’s virtually all we have of his history in the Famous Forty. At least one more recent writer (Donald Abbott) has offered a slightly more detailed origin story (and it would be smart of the producers to buy rights to that book just to be safe), but in terms of Oz canon, this is as good a springboard as any for a new movie.
Hey,
Watch it there! Joe Roth is a genius. He produced and directed the masterpiece known as Revenge of the Nerds 2: Nerds in Paradise. He really dug deep into the classic character of Ogre in a way that not even the original could accomplish. A true genius, way ahead of his time. Can’t wait to see what he does with the Wizard of Oz.
Ogre: What if uh C-A-T really spelled dog?
Why are these iconic directors, or would-be icons, like Sam Raimi wasting their talents? They have so much rich material to choose from, like historical pieces, or daring “think outside the box” scripts, that have a voice, but instead, they choose, “The Wizard of Oz” remakes or sequels, “Alice In Wonderland”, “Snow White”, translating into this kind of behind the curtain thinking: “Let me go for the big box office…high-concept films”. From Raimi, to Lucas, Spieberg, Tim Burton…and, of course, so many others, they have all sold-out and are going for the “big money”, but the question is, having already made the big money, and let’s face it folks, they can’t get any poorer, why keep giving us more of the same emptiness in their choices for films?
Why more mental junk-food? And to prove what? These are not newbies to the industry, they don’t have to sell-out to pay the bills, we know that, this is about ego, and avarice being a slave to ego. “Look at me”, they say, “I have the number one movie at the box office!”, but it is junk that they point us to, and proudly so, as if we are to respect and applaud such foolishness? Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love a good popcorn movie, but bloated blockbusters, usually have no real social point-of-view, say for “Avatar” which was about something of deeper import. It was about selflessness, and respecting the eco-system, and respect for others’ cultures, and ironically, rejecting greed? But back to these Titan directors, selling us junk food movies. Their names are proudly displayed in lights on movie marquees, worldwide, associated with said junk, with no substance, of fiber for the mind, and they wonder why our culture is faltering, why our teachers are being fired, schools closed, cops and fire officers laid-off, why our children turn to drugs and crime, and the middle class, is being lost as a new lower class? It is because in this nation, really the center of the world, the mind-trust we have forgotten that sometimes, we have to feed the hungry minds and hearts of a nation, and a world, with something they can grow by, and thus, skip those fat checks, in favor of educating the public mentally and spiritually…so we as a people are willing to stand-up and fight to save our society, to fix it, when it is broken…as ours is…and we are not going to do it on a diet of mindless themed movies, and murder filled TV dramas, and reality based shows. A sad indictment of the film arts community, indeed!!!
When is too much money enough, I ask??? There is nothing wrong with commerce, but commerce at the sake of selling your soul, when you already have all the money in the world, that you couldn’t ever manage to spend it…in 10 lifetimes, or even your loved ones’ lifetimes, well, that is just, again…sad…, pathetic, embarrassing, and a whole lot of insane!!!!
I love you Sam, but you, and your renown contemporaries, can do, and choose, better!!!
Good points, well made, Media Messiah. But don’t just blame the directors. There was a time when Hollywood was run by people who pretended to care about film. Now it’s run by business school graduates who only care about the bottom line. Society is poorer as a result. Where is this generation’s Godfather? All we get are faint echoes of Star Wars.
The charge against Burton shows a lack of historical perspective. Burton has always done the occasional blockbuster to help fund his indie projects, like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, and The Corpse Bride. Directing a big movie now and then brings cash and media attention – something that most of the low-budget indie films makers would all but kill to get. Don’t belittle those that have done the time and made the grade.
you don’t work in hollywood, do you.
I agree, but it’s also an indictment on the people who pay money to see this garbage. The audience is half to blame for the decline of our movies and culture in general. If people didn’t pay to see this stuff, Hollywood wouldn’t make it.
Agreed. The general public is made up of morons who would rather see CGI robots beating each other up than anything that even remotely requires them to use their brains. The “dumbing down of America” has infected the movie biz.
I agree, but the sad truth is audiences are trained to go see what [we’re] told to see. Happened on TV with reality shows – how is the TV market now? The execs couldn’t wait to make huge profits on the then-new fad, even at the cost of gutting their own industry. And what do we have because of it? Crap shows, and TV audiences diminishing daily. Can’t the TV audience look at shows like “True Blood” objectively and see it for the stinking pile of shit that it is? Can nobody think for themselves any more?
Features are no different. Mind-numbing films are pushed on us as “entertainment” and [we] slowly accept it. Ask any advertising person – they’ll tell you how easy it is to manipulate an audience. So now, unless a film makes $100 million it’s considered a flop (not the smallest problem is production and inflated P&A costs). And what movies make over $100 million? – big, stupid extravaganzas with big “star” actors and directors. (Yes, I’m generalizing here.)
And now we supposedly have studio heads asking agents what to do next? Really? I wouldn’t mind seeing Robert Downey Jr. in this film, but it’s just more of the same, “get the biggest star, pay him/her what they want, get the biggest director, pay him/her what they want… and let’s get this unimaginative POS into production. It’s gonna be HUGE!” And vapid.
ONE million dollars is still a shitload of money. How many millions do these people need?
Tell you what, studio heads and distributors: stop throwing money at people (and pocketing huge sums for yourselves) then bitching that you can’t make a profit on a film. Stop lying about P&A costs and pay real writers what they’re worth. Hire actors who can, you know, act and who aren’t just in it for the money and to pump up their star egos. Then, perhaps, you can make a quality film and market it for under $50M – and when it makes $75M at the BO, you have profited $25 million dollars. Everybody got paid – fairly – and you didn’t screw anybody over.
Of course, this is as much a fantasy as the “Wonderful World of Oz”.
@Levon – Daaaaaammmnnnn! LOL
I’m sure you won’t print this but … Shame on every single one of them. They’re actually going to remake this? What a disgrace.
Jeffrey wrote: “They’re actually going to remake this? What a disgrace.” It’s not a remake, it’s a prequel. A remake would be taking the original OZ film and well, remaking it with actors of today.
did you read the article carefully? it’s not a remake, it’s a prequel.
They will remake anything, movies are just commodities, just a product, not art, just something produced in a factory that is expected to make money for the media company and its stockholders. Hopefully this one will make as much as Alice for Disney.
Prequel, not remake.
As to whether Raimi can do what Tim Burton just did: quality wise or box office wise? Alice sucked major balls. One of the shittiest films I’ve seen in a long time. Johnny Depp is an amazing talent though, as is Mia.
I wish there was some way to block every boring person who starts their comment “I’m sure you won’t print this” from contributing to this site.
Having said that, as opposed to dreck like THE A TEAM or the next boring installment of SPIDERMAN (which Raimi had the good sense to stay away from), this is one project as prequel that seems to have a little something on its metaphorical mind. It is not a remake of WIZARD OF OZ (that’s in development too, and that’s the genuine disgrace). And Raimi’s sensibility offers some genuine promise.
Well this is just stupid. A prequel to The Wizard of OZ? That is more useless than The Obama Presidency. This movie is going to suck big time and anyone who actually thinks this movie can make anywhere near what Alice in Wonderland made is crazy. Hell this movie won’t even make half of what Alice made.
I would much rather see them just so ahead and remake the original classic that do this stupid and moronic idea.
Has anyone seen his worst masterpiece ‘ Drag me to hell’? What a load of crap that movie was and so was his Spidey movies.
What a bad choice to direct a classic
I love Robert Downey, Jr and Sam Raimi is a fine director, but this is the ulimate slippery slope —do a prequel of “Wizard of Oz” and it will do well —and then it’s down the yellow brick road with Dorothy and her friends for the sequel to the prequel. Madness! What’s next? A prequel of Sam and Ilsa before they got to Casablanca? Little Chuck Kane riding his sled before becoming the famous head of an empire? Hollywood loves to massacre the classics one way or the other.
Correct me if I am wrong. When the movies Revolution decided to make wasnt it Todd Gardner(?) responsible for some of these pieces of crap. He seems to skip any respobsibility for the demise of Revolution. The beginning of Revolution with all that they had
to succeed gone so fast. Two men Joe Roth Todd Garner shame on your arrogance.
The real disgrace is that you didn’t actually read the article.
They’re not remaking The Wizard of Oz. They’re making a prequel about the ascention of Oz to the throne. It’s as much a remake as Wicked.
But even if they were remaking it…it wouldn’t be the first time. Ever hear of The Wiz?
Raimi can do everything. Downey can do anything. Can’t wait.
In general, I think the new Disney regime is making some really poor choices, but this does sound like a slam dunk. I haven’t read the script but it’s certainly one of the more interesting reboots i’ve heard about…
Jeffrey, you dolt. Do you just look at the pretty pictures and surmise the contents of the article without reading? Just like 60% of the readers on this site now? They’re not “remaking” anything. It’s a new spin on a classic story, a prequel. This site should come with a glossary for judgmental morons like you.
At least a prequel is more imaginative than a remake. When I read this article I thought…and the script was written by….WHO?!! Did it write itself? The writer is always the one who is forgotten in the article. I remember when Roth went out and formed Revolution…and I was excited to see the first film. It was something like “Wildcats” or close to that name with Jerry O’Connell. There was a “funny” date rape scene in which a school girl got raped while vomiting out the window of a car’s backseats. Hilarious. Watch your backs munchkins….
“Now the only question is whether Sam Raimi can do what Tim Burton just did.”
Which is what, make a lousy, script-free, bloated kids movie that made a fortune because of its name, cast and the fact that it was in 3-D?’
I love Burton but ALICE was one of his worst films by a country mile.
Burton + Depp + Sequel to Classic Story = $1 billion
Raimi + Downey + Prequel to Classic Story = not $1 billion
Downey’s doing OZ? Are you f’ing kidding me? Fan-f’ing-tastic!
Adam Shankman would have been the much better choice. Raimi couldn’t direct his way out of a paper bag before Spiderman and he couldn’t do it after. Shankman is a passionate filmmaker who would have delivered huge for the studio. Too bad Disney chiefs are more short sighted than a munchkin’s shlong.
Adam Schankman is the guy for this. How did Raimi happen?
What happened to World of Warcraft? I would rather see a brand new world imagined that a retreading of one of the greatest movies of all time. I don’t think kids think Wizard of Oz is cool anymore. There’s no way this is a 4 quadrant film. Raimi sold out…
@film messiah….
while I cannot disagree that greed drives many in the industry, and our societal priorities are askew, I also cannot help
but ask you this…if mr. raimi were indeed chasing “big box office”, would he not have stayed on spidey 4?
There’s also a low-budget “Witches of Oz” that looks like a lot of fun. The official web site followtheyellowbrickroad.com is some kind of splash page, but IMDB has more information: Witches of OZ
If done well, this could actually be a great story, and a great addition to the Oz canon….I mean, it worked wonders for Wicked on Broadway, so no reason to think it won’t work well for film….As long as they don’t remake “The Wizard of Oz”…..
Wicked might be a good Broadway show, but the book was a virtual rape of the original story, and yes I mean rape with all of the sexual connotations…it’s a pity the Oz books ever went out of copyright…
Read it. It’s not a remake it’s a prequel.
What I find most disturbing about this is that the new studio safely (presumably) hire a comic book guy like Raimi to make a picture that is going to need a lot of heart and soul story to work. This sounds like a pure name play that all too often backfires. Disney had an opportunity to launch a beautiful family franchise. I suspect we’re going to get a lot of flashy effects and overdone 3D instead.
So….it’s Wicked but Hollywood’s way of stealing an idea? Brilliant.
I thought Robert Downey’s JR. involvement in this was denied. First by his rep. Then he denied it himself when he was doing press for Iron Man. Plus doesn’t RDJ already have a lot on his plate between Sherlock Holmes, The Avengers, and then Iron Man 3?