{"id":11437,"date":"2007-08-29T07:26:17","date_gmt":"2007-08-29T14:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/08\/29\/good-oz-bad-oz.html"},"modified":"2014-11-10T08:30:06","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:30:06","slug":"good_oz_bad_oz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/29\/good_oz_bad_oz.html","title":{"rendered":"Good Oz, Bad Oz?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Good News<\/u>: Warners is looking at creating a Wizard of Oz <\/em>film franchise, to carry on audiences from Lord of the Rings <\/em>and Harry Potter<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Bad News<\/u>:  They’re bringing in Todd McFarlane, who wants a “dark, edgy, and muscular PG-13<\/a>,” not singing Munchkins.<\/p>\n

The Good News<\/u>:  Okay, I’m willing to pass on the singing Munchkins.  And I was apparently one of three people who liked Disney’s “dark, edgy” Return to Oz<\/a><\/em>  back in ’85 — plenty of wonderment and magic, but a dollop of scariness and dark fantasy.<\/p>\n

The Bad News<\/u>:  But — Todd McFarlane?  The guy who came out with “Bondage Dorothy<\/a>” and “Evil Mutant Toto” action figures?<\/p>\n

The Good News<\/u>:  There’s a ton of material out there in the way of Oz books — and for a generation growing up that thinks that Oz is about the nastiness of life in an Australian prison, that’s probably a good thing.<\/p>\n

The Bad News<\/u>:  Todd “Spawn” McFarlane?<\/em><\/p>\n

On the bright side, it appears that though McFarlane was involved in some of the original concept that got Warners interested, Josh Olson did the pitch and is doing the actual screenwriting.  And he seems to have the right idea.<\/p>\n

\n

Olson has something a little tamer, and PG, in mind.  “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 \u2018Harry Potter\u2019 dark, not \u2018Seven\u2019 dark.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It also seems that, like the Disney offering, the new film will start off more as a sequel to the classic 1939 film than as a replacement.<\/p>\n

\n

Olson was keeping plot specifics to himself but said the film will be closer to a sequel than a remake.   “We still want to take advantage of the first film, which might be the most beloved of all time, and rely on its place in your cultural memory to bubble beneath the surface,” Olson said. “A lot of the plot is mine, but the characters are all Baum.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, cognizant of the controversy of McFarlane, Olson is distancing himself<\/a> from the comics bad boy.<\/p>\n

\n

While it was Todd\u2019s idea to bring back Oz, and that idea sparked this whole process, I\u2019ve never met him, never heard his take, and am not writing this script with anyone else. I love the Baum books, and leapt at the chance to bring those amazing stories and characters to a new audience.<\/p>\n

The story I pitched to Warners – and that they hired me to write – is, I believe, faithful to the spirit and tone of those amazing books. I think even Todd would be happy to tell you, this movie has no connection whatsoever to those action figures, and when I say it will be darker, do not expect it to go beyond Harry Potter dark.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be seeing many of your favorite characters return from the classic film, as well as meeting loads of Baum\u2019s other great characters. While I\u2019ve created my own distinct plot, it\u2019s all built around Baum\u2019s characters, Baum\u2019s world, and Baum\u2019s vision. I think Oz fans will recognize my love for the source material, and will be very happy with the finished result.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We’ll see.  And I hope so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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And the ones I've seen are: Best Supporting Actor: Ian McKellan, The Lord of the Rings Best Actress: Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge Art Direction: Harry...","rel":"","context":"In "Harry Potter"","block_context":{"text":"Harry Potter","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/harry-potter"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3074,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/13\/childrens_books.html","url_meta":{"origin":11437,"position":3},"title":"Children’s Books","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Aug-02 11:46am","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, on This-or-That Tuesday....","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9775,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/05\/disney_and_oz.html","url_meta":{"origin":11437,"position":4},"title":"Disney and Oz","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 5-Nov-06 10:45pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting article on the relationship between Disney and the Baum's Oz stories -- on the 50-year anniversary of MGM's The Wizard of Oz being shown on TV. CBS executives...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18029,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/02\/a-pair-of-percys.html","url_meta":{"origin":11437,"position":5},"title":"A Pair of Percy’s","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 2-Aug-10 6:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We watched Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief -- er, rather, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief -- on DVD while at Jim and Ginger's a few weeks ago.\u00a0 And this evening I just finished the book it was based on, The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan.* Huh.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/lightning-thief-book1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/lightning-thief-book1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/lightning-thief-book1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42783,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions\/42783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}