With news surfacing of Sam Raimi (Spiderman) taking on Oz: The Great and Powerful with Disney, Warner Bros. is possibly rivaling it with a live-action remake of the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz, with director Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future I, II, & III) in talks to direct it. For more details, hit the jump!
Deadline.com reports that Ted Turner owns the original script and Warner Bros. would be using it to recreate the classic story of Dorothy and her little dog too, with the visionary director Zemeckis to helm the project.
Personally, there are just some movies that should never be touched- ever. The Wizard of Oz is one of those movies. Of course, it’s fun to play around with details of the story and create a spin-off or a prequel for a character, like what Raimi is doing for Oz with none other than Robert Downey Jr. in mind, and these reinvented ideas are what keeps audiences interested. We are reminded of why we love the originals so much and how they have become timeless pop culture icons.
With that, it’s only appropriate to mention that actress-turned-director Drew Barrymore (Whip It) is undertaking an Oz-oriented project, but this comes in the form of Surrender Dorothy. Barrymore will be playing “the great, great granddaughter of Dorothy who has to learn how to use the power of those ruby red slippers to keep the Wicked Witch of the West from taking control of the kingdoms of Earth and Oz,” according to Collider.com. That sounds like a movie worth seeing!
If you take a look at films like Planet of the Apes, there’s really only one good version- the original- that should come to mind. Also, there’s The Time Machine, based on H.G. Wells’ classic novel, and maybe a modern audience would think of Guy Pearce first and foremost, but the 1960 version is really the version that stands the test of time. There are countless others, like Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner with Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn, which turned into the forgettable farce, Guess Who in 2005 with Ashton Kutcher.
The list goes on, but this is all the information we have for now about The Wizard of Oz remake. There have got to be other movie-goers out there like me who think this is a terrible idea. Let us know what you think! As more details emerge, Movie Buzzers will be updating readers accordingly!
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