Can you say “no”, as in “No bloody way, no”. Warner Bros. is thinking of remaking the Wizard of Oz. Quoting from the article:
One project, called “Oz,” currently lives at Warner’s New Line label. It’s being produced by Temple Hill, which is behind a little franchise called “Twilight,” and has a script written by Darren Lemke, a writer on the upcoming “Shrek Forever After.”
A second “Wizard of Oz” project, set up at Warners proper, skews a little darker — it’s written by “A History of Violence” screenwriter Josh Olson and focuses on a granddaughter of Dorothy who returns to Oz to fight evil. “Clash of the Titans” producer Basil Iwanyk and his Thunder Road Pictures are behind that one. (“Spawn” creator Todd MacFarlane is potentially involved in a producerial capacity, to give you some idea of the tone.)
Now, I’m not saying “The Wizard of Oz”, or related properties, shouldn’t be remade. The film version of the musical “The Wiz” was a reasonable idea, although executed completely wrong. A non-musical version of Greg Maguire’s Oz-themed books, “Wicked”, “Son of a Witch”, or “A Lion Among Men” could be quite good. Even adapting the musical “Wicked”, as long as it wasn’t just a filmed stage version, might even work.
But not these ideas, or these proponents. I have no confidence, especially returning to Oz to fight evil. Trust me, “Alice” is succeeding not because it is a fairy-tale property, but because it is a fantasic envisioning. But then again, who am I to talk? People are flocking to Avatar, even though it is just a retelling of Pochahantis.
