Yesterday a supposed logline for a new WIZARD OF OZ film titled OZ: THE RETURN TO EMERALD CITY showed up on the website Pajiba. The logline describes the film thusly:
It’s a modern-day sequel. The story centers on Dorothy Neil, a bright and ambitious young lawyer for a prestigious law firm in Chicago. Neil is the grand-daughter of Dorothy Gale, who is now an old woman living in Kansas and telling her tales about her time in the land of Oz to a new generation of kids. However, trouble is afoot in Oz, as a new witch is destroying the magic that keeps the entire place running. While babysitting her boss’ kid, the kid and Dorothy Neil are brought back to Oz and united with the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow and tasked with killing an evil witch and restoring order in Oz.
It set off a number of questions including, a) is this real? and b) does this have anything to do with Todd McFarlane’s planned project? Turns out the answer, at least to both of those questions, is yes. MTV spoke with writer Josh Olson who said that the above logline pretty accurately describes the most recent draft he handed into Warner Bros. Turns out McFarlane’s original pitch was a little dark so they asked Olson (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) to smooth out the edge a little bit. McFarlane wasn’t exactly pleased (he pejoratively referred to it as WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY).
All this said, Warners wasn’t much happy with Olson’s draft either (though for different reasons than McFarlane) and the project is out to new writers. So it looks like some kind of OZ sequel is in development but when we’ll ever see it remains to be seen.
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