Sam Raimi‘s Oz the Great and Powerful

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(via Cinematical)


Deadline now reports that Sam Raimi has signed on to direct Robert Downey Jr. in Disney's Wizard of Oz prequel, Oz: The Great and Powerful.

The deal was finalized last night, making this Raimi's first directorial project since leaving Spider-Man 4.

Ever since Sam Mendes told Disney he wouldn't direct the Wizard of Oz prequel, Oz, the Great and Powerful, a number of filmmakers have been linked to the project as possible substitutes. Even Guillermo del Toro was rumored to be considered. But now Sam Raimi has officially accepted the gig.

The Spider-Man trilogy director would team up with Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr., who has long been set to play the titular "wizard" for the origin story, which has been scripted by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards).

Disney apparently wants to get this going soon, which makes sense given there are about a billion other Oz-based films in the works at various studios, so it would likely be his next film.

If Raimi is now headed to Oz, he won't end up doing The Hobbit, for which he was thought next in line after Del Toro's departure from that prequel. And he won't end up doing a World of Warcraft movie either.

Fans would rather see what a Raimi-directed Oz movie looks like than let the project fall into the hands of other less visionary directors like Adam Shankman and Timur Bekmambetov, both of whom have been candidates. There are more fans of the darker sort of L. Frank Baum adaptations, such as Disney's own Return to Oz, and they can now look forward to something along the tone of the Evil Dead movies.

And who wouldn't like to see Bruce Campbell as any number of Oz characters?

[fortunato]

Hmmmmmm. Wow.

[ChronoGrl]

Originally Posted by fortunato

Hmmmmmm. Wow.

My response exactly.

I'm intrigued but, uhm, I kinda want Raimi to go back to horror...

...

Couldn't be worse than Alice in Wonderland, though. :rolleyes:

[neverending]

Sure it could. Have you seen The Wiz?

[fortunato]

Originally Posted by neverending

Sure it could. Have you seen The Wiz?

Haha, that's true.

I'd like Raimi to go back to horror, too. He did such a good job with Drag Me To Hell. Horror has always seemed to come naturally to him, but on most everything else he just seems to fall short.

[ChronoGrl]

Originally Posted by neverending

Sure it could. Have you seen The Wiz?

LOL - Good call. I always thought that The Wiz was ridiculously overrated - I never got its appeal, but Heaven forbid I say that in front of my die-hard theater friends... :rolleyes:

Originally Posted by fortunato

Haha, that's true.

I'd like Raimi to go back to horror, too. He did such a good job with Drag Me To Hell. Horror has always seemed to come naturally to him, but on most everything else he just seems to fall short.

DEFINITELY agree - I really don't care for the Spiderman movies much at all... Quick and the Dead was a fun watch, though... But not as good as Drag Me To Hell or any of the Evil Dead films. The Gift was OK, but not really anything that I'd need to see again (definitely falls into the "fell short" category). Simple Plan wasn't bad... But again, not as good as his horror.

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Sam Raimi‘s semi-prequel to The Wizard of Oz has a villainess. Oz: The Great and Powerful already had James Franco set to play the man who becomes the wizard, and Mila Kunis as the witch Theodora. (Spelled ‘Theadora’ in today’s trade break.) That character has an evil sister, Evanora, and that is the role that Rachel Weisz is now negotiating to take.

So that leaves Glinda to cast — that being the character who survives to be the Good Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz.

(The Mila Kunis character — spoiler! — becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.)

Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley and Rebecca Hall have all been said to be on a shortlist for the remaining two sisters in the wake of casting Mila Kunis as Theodora. We don’t know who was testing for Evanora, and who for Glinda.

And giving the fate of the two sisters that show up in The Wizard of Oz, might we surmise that Rachel Weisz won’t meet a very good fate in this movie? She is the villainess, after all. But might she also have a reversal of disposition at some point, especially if Theodora ends up hateful? Possibly.

James Franco portrays a fast-talking snake oil salesman and illusionist who flees a traveling circus and winds up whisked away in a hot air balloon by a tornado to Oz where he must face off against real magic and the sisters battling for control of the land. Theodora starts out as a good witch, alongside her beautiful sister Glinda, but after her sexual advances are jilted by Franco’s salesman, she’s convinced by Evanora to switch sides and help her older sister rule Oz.

[Fearonsarms]

This might turn out to be quite good.

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Shooting has commenced officially. Cinematographer Peter Deming (Evil Dead II, Drag Me to Hell, Lost Highway) is shooting.

Additionally, Howard Berger is “[creating] the looks of several of the unique denizens of Oz, including creatures such as the Whimsies, the Tinkers and the Winkies, as well as the ghastly look of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams lead the cast.

James Franco plays the young wizard Oz; Mila Kunis is the witch Theodora; Rachel Weisz is Kunis’ sister Evanora and Michelle Williams is Glinda, the Good Witch. Zach Braff will play Franco’s circus assistant as well as lend his vocal talents to one of the CGI creatures in the story — Finley, the winged monkey who accompanies the magician on his journey to Oz; and 12-year-old actress Joey King will voice another CGI character in the story, China Girl, who also joins the future Wizard on his excursion through Oz.

Oz The Great and Powerful imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.

[leezuki]

i am looking forward to watching this,been waiting for years for this prequel.