Tim Burton’s trippy triple-dimensional ALICE IN WONDERLAND snatched up over $200 million worldwide during its opening weekend, so studios are unsurprisingly looking for their own vivid mainstream 3D freakout.
Why not the mother of all nightmare-inducing “family” movies, THE WIZARD OF OZ? Yes, the LA Times says that Warner Bros. plans to force Dorothy back into the realm populated by frightened feline, heartless robot, brainless straw man, wicked witch, tuneful dwarfs, agitated trees, a giant disembodied shouting head, and an army of terrifying flying monkeys, oh god the monkeys.
The studio is reportedly eyeballing a couple of already-in-development projects to reshape and push forward, including OZ (from SHREK FOREVER AFTER co-writer Darren Lemke), and a darker variation from scribe Josh Olson (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) focusing on a granddaughter of Dorothy who returns to Oz to fight evil.
The source material, L. Frank Baum’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, is in the public domain, but the original movie version is owned by MGM (which is apparently owned by WB).
The studio is reportedly still in the early phase on the OZ update, but have already put the word out to A-list directors.
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