Apologies to Todd McFarlane, the new Wizard of Oz will be awesome

in Movies by griffn — October 1, 2009 at 9:30 am | 5 comments

A few weeks ago, my colleague negrostotle posted the news that Todd McFarlane was producing a darker film version of The Wizard of Oz, along with this unfortunate bit of commentary: “Hollywood’s effort to remake/destroy anything good in the past continues.” On behalf of Forbes Avenue, allow me to apologize profusely to Mr. McFarlane, because upon further review it’s clear that the new Wizard of Oz will be awesome.

First of all, the 1939 version of Wizard of Oz, despite catering to children, created the greatest fantasy world ever put on film up until Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. What McFarlane wants to do is combine those two worlds:

McFarlane has a vision of Oz that is a dark, edgy and muscular PG-13, without a singing Munchkin in sight. … “My pitch was ‘How do we get people who went to ‘Lord of the Rings’ to embrace this?’” McFarlane said. “I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley from ‘Alien’ than a helpless singing girl.”

And then there’s this. The new Wizard of Oz will be based on the Twisted Land of Oz toys that McFarlane released back in 2003. (Full disclosure: I own dozens of McFarlane’s sports figures, and Troy Polamalu, Franco Harris, and Roberto Clemente are sitting on a table in my living room as I type this. Yes, I’m a grown man.) There’s simply no way a movie containing this level of imagery and imagination can suck:

mcfarlane_lion_400

If you’re worried about Dakota Fanning playing Dorothy as a bondage queen, relax. The rumor that Fanning is playing Dorothy is false, and screenwriter Josh Olson** (A History of Violence) is toning down the toys and shooting for a more Lord of the Rings-esque PG-13.

In conclusion, we try our best to comment intelligently on a wide variety of topics here, but sometimes we get it wrong. By lumping Todd McFarlane’s Wizard of Oz in with childhood nostalgia remake trash like Transformers and G.I. Joe, we committed an egregious and careless mistake. We sincerely regret the error.

** UPDATE: Apparently, Josh Olson’s involvement in the film is more complicated than first reported. He was writing his own version of a Wizard of Oz film and never has worked on McFarlane’s, though they did share ideas briefly. Truth be told, this is kind of a relief ’cause I didn’t think A History of Violence was all that good.

Tags: Dakota Fanning Franco Harris G.I. Joe Roberto Clemente The Lord of the Rings The Wizard of Oz Todd McFarlane Transformers Troy Polamalu

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5 Comments

negrostotle
2009-10-01
14:53:18
The movie as a stand alone may be awesome. I never said the movie would suck or be good. just that hollywood is remaking everything and destroying my childhood. This movie can win an oscar, and that can still hold true.

McFarland is remaking a classic movie where not only is a little liberty being taken, but based on what little i've heard, it sounds like its a total script re-write. Dorothy resembling Ripley from Alien? How would that not be an attempt to dramatically alter the way people looked at the original wizard of oz?

Finally, special effects and imagination do not always a good movie make. If it did, Tim Burton would basically win best picture every time he made a movie. And it still goes back to the same point...this movie can be great and still destroy childhood memories of, not the original Wizard of Oz, but at least the one everyone knows.
tigger500
2009-10-02
01:23:27
First - let's hope it's better than Spawn.

Second - The Oz books are delightfully dark. In truth - this version seems truer to Baum's vision than the Garland film (great film that it is). I'm intrigued. Though I will say that I would rather have seen Gilliam do this version.
griffn
2009-10-02
02:27:08
@negrostotle - I see what you're saying, but the1939 Wizard of Oz is pretty firmly entrenched in the American psyche. And it has survived countless remakes, reimaginings, spoofs, etc. in the past, including 1985's twisted Return to Oz. However McFarlane's version turns out, it won't affect the original.

@tigger500 - I don't know who Gilliam is. But I think Guillermo del Toro would be a great choice to direct if he wasn't tied up with the Hobbit films.
tigger500
2009-10-02
10:00:47
Yes, Del Toro would be dope.

I meant Terry Gilliam. Director of 12 Monkeys and a former member of Monty Python.
tigger500
2009-10-02
10:02:33
Return to Oz was pretty damn near close to the tone of that book though. I should re-read some Baum, dude was twisted.

I do think it's kind of funny how we forget, or don't know, just how dark and twisted children's stories really are. The Oz books are almost dystopian in tone.