Movie Buzzers has reported about the recent news of Sam Raimi’s newest project, Oz: The Great & Powerful. All fingers have been pointing towards Robert Downey Jr. (Due Date) to star in the back story of Emerald City’s beloved wizard, but it was just announced that the actor is no longer attached to the movie. Disney is currently in talks with Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) to take over the lead role. Click the jump for more details!
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the story is a “tale of Oz as a young illusionist with a grandiose attitude who is forced to flee a traveling circus. His hot air balloon is swept up by a tornado to the Land of Oz, which is run by two magical wicked witches.”
“The question with Depp, who has a close relationship with the studio after starring in its Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and last year’s Alice in Wonderland, will be whether the timing works out,” explains THR.
Currently Depp will be promoting the animated flick Rango and the latest Pirates film due out in May, he just wrapped on The Rum Diary, is in pre-production for Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, and is set to star alongside Tom Hanks (Toy Story 3) in Kathryn Bigelow’s action-adventure film, Triple Frontier. Not to mention, Depp’s name is all over Hollywood to play Tonto in Disney’s The Lone Ranger.
Including Oz, Downey Jr. has dropped out of two major projects recently, the other being the sci-fi thriller Gravity, opposite Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), but George Clooney (The American) is rumored to have since stepped in to take his place. With this unexpected development, there is no word yet on when filming will begin, but Disney has already hired a unit production manager and began working on creating a digital world for the movie.
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