Warner Bros. Plans Wizard of Oz Remake

[Hunter Rider]

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=71708

Warner Bros. has plans to move forward with a remake of the classic The Wizard of Oz, reports Deadline.

Planning to shoot from the script to the 1939 version (which, though it is by far the best known, wasn't the first filmic iteration of the L. Frank Baum story), WB is said to be in talks with Robert Zemeckis to helm the property.

Zemeckis, meanwhile, is currently working on a performance-capture remake of The Beatles animated film, Yellow Submarine, and was announced to make a return to live action with a time travel story, Timeless (though that has been called into some question with the news that Phillip Noyce is now attached to potentially the same project.)

Warner Bros.' version of The Wizard of Oz would go up against Disney's planned Oz-prequel, Oz, the Great and Powerful, in development now with Sam Raimi attached to direct.

Summertime Entertainment, meanwhile, has planned an animated sequel to the original Oz tale entitled Dorothy of Oz, planned for release next year.

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[Dr. Evil]

Didn't they remake this in the 70's? It was "The Wiz."

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

I really like Return To Oz, more so than the original.
Isn't Oz a large set of books? Why not make a sequel?

 

[Darkness Falls]

oh god not zemeckis..... anyone but robert zemeckis

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Didn't they remake this in the 70's? It was "The Wiz."

Yea, everyone was black, for some reason.

 

[CBGB]

no. No. NO!

 

[redfirebird2008]

This will bring new meaning to the phrase "raping people's childhoods."

 

[Heretic]

I've never seen The Wizard Of Oz* but this still seems borderline sacrilegious.




*That's right, I said it.

 

[Darkness Falls]

I've never seen The Wizard Of Oz* but this still seems borderline sacrilegious.




*That's right, I said it.

QFT

p.s Heretic.... run out and rent it now

 

[Anubis]

Eh. It's been remade, reinvisioned, and remastered by everybody in just about every form of media, ever. I fail to see why this is facepalm worthy news.

 

[Majik1387]

Zemeckis?

 

[Heretic]

QFT

p.s Heretic.... run out and rent it now

Eh...I have an issue with watching movies that I should have watched as a kid, but didn't. I'm well adjusted enough to know that I am likely permanently scarred by the poverty I grew up in that prevented me from ever seeing a Disney cartoon (to this day the only Disney cartoons I've ever seen are The Lion King and Up)...still don't celebrate Christmas...and stuff like Wizard of Oz just doesn't interest me...eh...not really an appropriate thread to discuss my childhood issues, but whatever.

 

[Wolfwood]

Honestly, I have no problems with someone taking a tale like Wizard of Oz and reinventing it, making it their own. However, if they're just going to attempt to copy and paste the original, then that's a waste.

I just hope he does it in live action.

 

[Cousin Itt]

I love the book (probably more than I love the movie) so I don't mind them remaking this.

Just give the flying monkeys a bigger part.

 

[dark_b]

whats funny is that the excuse that kids need an updated movie to enjoy it is BS. every kid can enjoy the original movie.

 

[Kurosawa]

The ONLY justification for remaking this would be to make it closer to the book and use it as the starting point for an adaption of the original Baum series. To do a shot for shot remake of the MGM Original is insane. You are NOT replacing Judy Garland in a musical version of the Wizard of Oz (the Wiz is a different reimagining) and getting anyone to buy into it.

Now they do a non-musical version, darker, closer to the books, Dorothy having her John R. Neill visual, etc...that would be legitimate.

A remake from the script of the 1939 version? Reminds me of this "gem":

There is a ton of crazy stuff in Baum's books, plenty to fill a series of movies with great concepts and visuals.

 

[Majik1387]

WB is just looking for their new HP series as HP ends next year.

 

[jmc]

Why is it when WB do something sound and reasonable like scrapping 3D for Harry Potter they come out with some brain dead idea like this? If you're going to a do a new take of the original books that's one thing, but a using a script from the '39 film? Eff me dead. Seriously, this can't be allowed to happen, films like this should just never be touched.

 

[Jennifer Walters]

I have no words. No words.

 

[PyroChamber]

Why don't they just make a Wicked movie?

 

[jmc]

^ I believe someone is doing that.

 

[WorthyStevens]

Generally, I'm not opposed to remakes. If you don't want to watch something, noone's forcing you to do so. But considering there is a book material to use to make your own version, Warner Bros., using the original movie's script as template is purely and utterly LAZY.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

while they're at it, might as well remake Casablanca and Gone With The Wind

 

[steintym]

I don't know ... For some reason this kind of interests me. Although, a remake, page by page from the original script is a bit of a concern. Rather see a new take.

 

[Raiden]

Ugh, a remake of the Wizard of Oz? What's next, a remake of The Sound of Music and Breakfast at Tiffany? Hollywood is so insanely obsessed with remakes and reboots that soon they will eventually remake all the timeless classics.