Return to Oz with McFarlane and Olson

Todd McFarlane and Josh Olson team up for a new take on Dorothy and the gang!

Excerpted from Variety:

[The new "Wizard of Oz"] was acquired based on an idea by Todd McFarlane that was fleshed out and pitched by Josh Olson (”A History of Violence”).

Olson will write and McFarlane will produce with Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk. Rick Benattar (”Shoot ’Em Up”) is exec producer.

Conversations with McFarlane and Olson make it clear that they are still working out the tone of the film. They have plenty to work with. WB has owned the rights to the original “The Wizard of Oz” since buying Ted Turner’s empire, whose assets included the film and other plum titles in the MGM library. There are also 15 novels in the Oz series written by Baum, most in the public domain.

McFarlane has a vision of Oz that is a dark, edgy and muscular PG-13, without a singing Munchkin in sight. That was clear with a toy line he launched several years ago that featured a buxom Dorothy [see picture below --Caleb] and Toto reimagined as an oversized snarling warthog. Olson has something a little tamer, and PG, in mind.

“I saw those toys, and Dorothy as some bondage queen isn’t something I want to do,” Olson told Daily Variety. “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 ‘Harry Potter’ dark, not ‘Seven’ dark.”

Both McFarlane and Olson are on the same page when it comes to the promise of marrying the Baum story with benefits of visual effects advancements.

[Also be sure to check out Olson's collaboration with Harlan Ellison on this coming Sunday's episode of The Masters of Science Fiction on ABC: The Discarded --Caleb]

The McFarlane Toys Dorothy with munchkins:
monsters2_dorothy_photo_03_.jpg

Posted under Hollywood

This post was written by Caleb Monroe on August 22, 2007

1 Comment so far

  1. G. D.-L. August 23, 2007 12:02 pm

    Right on RICK! This movie has a heave Meltdown family crew on board.
    Best to all,

    G.

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