At any rate, Franco is now reportedly up for yet another project, traveling somewhere over the rainbow for director Sam Raimi’s OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL, a prequel to the classic WIZARD OF OZ.
The Disney project started with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead role, and Johnny Depp was approached when RDJ departed. Now that Depp has passed, the production has moved on to negotiations with Franco — who first found his face before mass audiences thanks to Raimi’s SPIDER-MAN trilogy.
This OZ tale (formerly going by the title BRICK) is being produced by ALICE IN WONDERLAND’s Joe Roth, and explores how the Wizard arrived in the psychedelic fantasy realm as part of a traveling circus from Kansas before he ultimately stepped behind the curtain.