Warner Bros Options Darker WIZARD OF OZ Revision

By: Jarrod Sarafin, News Editor
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Source: Variety

Expect a dark revisionist take on Frank Baum's WIZARD OF OZ courtesy of Todd McFarlane, Josh Olsen (History of Violence) & Warner Bros. Variety is reporting the team is planning this darker toned adaptation to be more like a sequel, not a remake. Todd McFarlane thought of the concept and Josh Olsen pitched it to Warner Bros who approved of it.

Here's what Olsen and McFarlane told Variety:

"The appealing thing about the Baum books to me is how wildly imaginative they are. There are crazy characters from amazing places. I want this to be 'Harry Potter' dark, not 'Se7en' dark." --Olsen

"My pitch was 'How do we get people who went to 'Lord of the Rings' to embrace this?'" McFarlane said. "I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You've still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she's much closer to the Ripley from 'Alien' than a helpless singing girl."

There will be no singing Munchkins in this adaptation of Frank Baum's classic.

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Comments/Responses

Miner49er • Aug 22, 2007, 01:22am •

If no singing Munchkins, then how about them flying monkeys?

videocide • Aug 22, 2007, 02:12am •

Yes! Thank you lord!!!

originaldave77 • Aug 22, 2007, 03:12am •

Maybe hand it off to Tim Burton. This could work a la Nightmare before Christmas or Corpse Bride.
OR Hollywood could stop bastardizing classic properties.

halfuck1 • Aug 22, 2007, 05:20am •

Didn't they try this in the 1980s with Return to Oz or some such. If I recall, people hated it because they saw it as destroying their chidhood (even though it was based on a couple of the other Oz books).

saiyiansreign823 • Aug 22, 2007, 06:02am •

This movie is a video game called Alice!!! i would love to see this if they go that route!!!

WarCry • Aug 22, 2007, 06:50am •

Alice is actually based on Alice in Wonderland (or, more correctly, Alice Through the Looking Glass).

I've been thinking for a long time that this film needs to be redone, and to hell with 'classics.' The Stardust hotel in Vegas was a classic, but it still got blown to hell.

Besides, this sounds more like Burton's "Chocolate Factory," based more on the books than making it 'light-hearted' fare.

Now, if only they'd REALLY go dark and make McFarlane's 'Twisted Land of Oz.' Pretty sure that'd be direct to video and you'd have to go in the little back room to rent it...

wolfmanX • Aug 22, 2007, 07:15am •

i see Dorothy putting intestines and guts back into the scarecrow instead of straw. i see the lion bitting off the heads of the flying monkeys. i see the tin man chopping limbs off the soldiers. i see toto being a rockweilder. i see dorothy throwing acid on the witch instead of water. all in all this sounds like a very goood wizard of oz. im all for it.

fenngibbon • Aug 22, 2007, 07:40am •

Isn't SciFi channel doing this already with the Tin Man miniseries later this year?

FrozenFear • Aug 22, 2007, 08:14am •

Speaking of Alice, wasn't American McGee working on a game that was supposed to be a darker version of Oz (a la this movie)?

Slopmaster • Aug 22, 2007, 09:02am •

Yes sci-fi is doing their take on The Wizard Of Oz and based on what I have seen so far I am very intrigued. So since this is going to be a Warners Brothers movie I would love to see Time Burton direct and speaking of which is just me or do I vaguly recall some rumor about Tim Burton doing the Wizard Of Oz at some point?

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