Way back in August 2007 we found out that Todd McFarlane’s toy line THE TWISTED LAND OF OZ was being adapted into a film. Then we never heard about it again…
Until now! Apparently there’s some rumblings going around that Dakota Fanning is in talks to play Dorothy in this twisted adventure. So Empire took it upon themselves and contacted the man himself Todd McFarlane to ask what the deal was with THE TWISTED LAND OF OZ. What did we get? Well not much to be quite honest. Here’s what we learned from the interview: McFarlane hasn’t heard anything about Dakota Fanning, Warner Bros. ‘intent would be’ to peg OZ’s start date for early next year, the script is currently in the process of a rewrite from a new writer and in regards to how dark the story will be:
“I think my “Twisted” version is a little scary for Warners to embrace. I essentially pitched Lord of the Rings. It was big, it was bold and it wasn’t a very pretty place. It was badass! There’s no Baum in it at all. When they bought it from me, my thing was, turn off the MGM mindset. It’s a public domain property, let’s go invent some cool new ideas, which basically will surprise people. What’s going to get a new generation to go look at Oz is if you reinvent it on some level. Not every single level, but some of them have to be new. Shut down your preconceived notions. For me, you should be looking at an isolated movie, that, oh, by the way, happens to be Oz. To get the new audience you’re going to have to put some edges on this thing. My version would rock! But they’re all like, “We’re spending $100m here, we can’t go totally nuts, Todd!” So I’ve told them that the movie I like is the one they’re willing to make!”
So there you have it! An update on THE TWISTED LAND OF OZ but not really. Hopefully there’s something solid here and the flick does indeed start production early next year. As always we’ll be on the lookout for any other info so be sure to keep it here for updates! Now how different is McFarlane’s vision exactly? That’s his Dorothy below.. all bound and tied. Nice. Then below that is my own vision of Dorothy. Even nicer!
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