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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.
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genius comment (tom caferty) and I totally agree. With Shankman, you would have at least gotten a movie with heart. Raimi has no emotional guidance system and Rich Ross will look back on this decision and pinpoint it as day one of his professional demise.
so where does this put his World of Warcraft project??
I love this pairing. Can’t wait to see it.
I agree. Much better material out there to choose from. It’s a sad state of affairs.
@ “Robert Downey Jr. isn’t set yet. They are going to develop for him, if things go right.”
TRANSLATION: Downey only knows how to play zany one-note eccentrics. The script will be tailored to his limited range. Downey is fastly becoming the new Johnny Depp. How boring. I’m always hearing reports of Downey’s wife coaching her husband on-set or Downey imprvovising his dialogue on the spot- here’s a novel idea, why not try actual acting Rob?
Yeah Robert Downey, Jr. You hack. Listen to what Irving Hensler has to say. He, obviously, knows more than you about acting.
Wasn’t this originally AMERICAN MCGEE’s project? I seem to recall him writing the prequel book named OZ as well as the video game. Coincidentally he also created the only worthy version of ALICE.
This is a DISASTER. I don’t care who the package is. Why won’t Sam use his talents for something N-E-W???!!! This will ruin the legacy of one of the most important films of all time.
Way to go, Hollywood.
Please for Gods sake somone has to stop this, it feels sooooo wrong!
Has Rich Ross greenlit anything YET?
if a prequel of ‘oz’ is to be made it should be Wicked the musical
@Daisy: I’m not sure if Sam Raimi had a choice on “Spiderman 4″, to stay, or go? Things got cloudy there, for a while, and there were rumors that he was not invited back to directed Spidey 4…after the mess that was “Spiderman 3″.Look, I love Sam, as I said before, but he needs to graduate to something more mature, and if he wishes to do something in the fantasy genre, why not do the great book “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, for instance? It is smart, with a rich spirituality…and a sweeping/epic story…about life…and the reasons why we are here. It is about finding purpose for living…versus greed, or just surviving, and what lies beyond, should we dare to find a deeper, and truer, purpose for living…beyond the rat-race we are told to participate in, or be outcast. Now, that is a story that a family audience, and especially children…need to see, and hear…but one that adults can relate to, as it speaks to us…on many levels…in metaphor, about the way we should be living, but so many of us are not–many times, just out of peer pressure…to conform, and consume…and be of the hive-mind, but we are more than that (more than conformity and consumption) and should aspire to be more than that, to be free…in body, spirit, and thought. That is the kind of “feel good”, “high-concept” blockbuster movie that Sam Raimi, and others, should be giving us, a film…and story…with a soul…and a conscience. Is that too much to ask for?
Already been hinted at, but this would pretty much kill Wicked being made, huh? Shame.
“Now the only question is whether Sam Raimi can do what Tim Burton just did.”
Make mediocre movies?
I kid, I kid. Burton’s stuff has rarely been to my taste, but he’s got a huge, appreciative audience. I don’t think Raimi has much more than a cult following, and his name isn’t the box office draw that Burton’s is, which means a slightly harder sell to audiences.
If Disney wants to make an Oz movie then WHY DOESN’T IT BASE IT ON ONE OF L. FRANK BAUM’S OZ BOOKS???
BAUM WROTE 16 OF THE EFFING THINGS!!!! 16!!!!
And “The Land of Oz”, the second Oz book, is brilliant, even better than the original, and would make a kickass film. It’s witty, imaginative, original, has a great story and characters and..oh wait. Right. This is Hollywood, and Rich Ross’ Disney, we’re talking about. Originality, imagination, wit and story have no place there.
Never mind.
@ “Yeah Robert Downey, Jr. You hack. Listen to what Irving Hensler has to say. He, obviously, knows more than you about acting.”
Whatever. Five years from now, you’ll be parroting exactly what I am saying. You just have media blinders on. Downey is the new Johnny Depp. His shtick is tired. He approaches every character like he is playing Doc Brown in Back to the Future.
The sad thing is that all of you refer to the 1939 musical when L. Frank Baum wrote the book in 1900 followed by 13 sequels. And if you knew anything about the book you would know that 1939 musical is nothing like the book, the movie its a mere watered down version of the story. It’s about time the world be introduced to the real Oz stories, but no one gets it!
I’d much rather be seeing a faithful adaption to the book then a prequel story, but out of all the Oz movie projects that are circulating right now, this seems to be the most promising.
Why don’t Disney just dig out their wallets and buy the film rights to Wicked (which Demi Moore owns strangly) and get the movie of the musical made.
No other OZ prequel could possibly match that – and it has a worldwide fanbase already built in.
Hopefully, this cheap idea will force Universal to get the Wicked film on fast track.
“mental junk food” lol… that’s perfect.
I like Money Pit.
In a nod to the original OZ are there any musical numbers written in the script? Also didn’t Disney already do Return to Oz in the 80s which was less than spectacular.
Return to Oz had its flaws, mostly in the Kansas subplot (gratuitous electroshock, anyone?), but it was actually a much better film than many reviewers gave it credit for. The Henson SFX/creature work was — for that time — extraordinary, and it drew much more on Baum’s books than it did on the 1939 film. All things considered, the Return to Oz filmmakers deserve credit for making a sincere and frequently well-executed effort to please both filmed-Oz and literary-Oz fans.
As far as the present project is concerned — Downey Jr. might do pretty well as the prequel-era humbug Wizard. I’m of more mixed minds about Raimi as director; if he gives Oz the respect he gave the Spideyverse in the first Spider-Man, the film could be superb; OTOH, if he flips into Evil Dead satirical mode, we could be looking at a disaster of Howard the Duck proportions. Much will also depend on the script, and how that shakes out has yet to be seen.
This argument about Raimi & Burton, Alice & Oz is just nonsense. Here is something that is absolute fact: I would have shelled out big bucks to Unholywood to go to the cinema for 90 minutes of nothing but the wickedly luscious, oh so lovely Helena Bonham Carter wearing nothing at all (IN 3D MIND YOU!), that is PRIOR to the kids and all the strech marks. I would have also paid big bucks for the DVD, AND the movie poster. I would have stood in line and paid Disney what ever it took to enter their HBC theme park, and paid again for entrance to the main exhibit and the privilege of kissing the tires of a laundry truck that once took away her soild “things”. Oh in a perfect world. Several years before she (an unknown) made her debut in Lady Jane I happened to marry a girl who (although her senior) could be her twin sister. The moral being: You can never have too much of a good thing!
Will we find out in this film why the red brick and the yellow brick roads start in munchkin land? And, where does the red brick road go?