Last Updated on August 5, 2021
The Mouse House brought three of their upcoming releases to Comic Con this year, including this prequel from geek favorite Sam Raimi.
We had yet to see anything from Sam Raimi’s latest film, his first since 2007’s DRAG ME TO HELL, so this was one of my most anticipated panels at this year’s Con. While the idea of an adventurous prequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ may seem unnecessary, it’s another film from the director of SPIDER-MAN and THE EVIL DEAD. He gets the benefit of the doubt.
- Before Sam Raimi came out, the panel started off by showing a bunch of Raimi’s greatest hits, which are pretty much all Spiderman and Evil Dead movies, so it was a little silly.
- Raimi said he likes going to the comic part of the convention, not the “Hollywood side.”
- The movie is based on Frank L. Baum’s books with inspiration from the 1939 film. Raimi described him as a “selfish man and a bit of a cad” so Oz is a land of second chances for him. With the love of the good witch Glinda, he becomes more of a selfless man.
- Oz starts off in Kansas as a carnival magician with bad social skills and a hunger for fame and riches. He gets caught sleeping with a married women and escapes in a hot air balloon, which flies in to a tornado and sends him to Oz.
TRAILER: Well, originally I described this in a breathtaking passage of literary genius, but since it’s online already I’ll just let you watch it for yourself. I’ll say that it does look cool and a departure for Raimi, but we’ve seen a bunch of similar fantasy movies over the past couple years. I’m eager to see more and how it sets differentiates itself from the SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN meets ALICE IN WONDERLAND vibe.
- Surprise guests Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis then joined Raimi onstage! An audience member screams he loves them and moderator Chris Hardwick says, “You totally got a shot with that guy!”
- Williams says Glinda is still the embodiment of everything good and pure but more human in this film and not the high-pitched goody two-shoes seen in the original movie. She won’t be replicating the original voice.
- Mila Kunis plays Theodora, Rachel Weisz’s witch sister. She’s sweet and naïve and believes that Oz really is the wizard they’ve been waiting for.
- Williams and Kunis didn’t get to work together much. (Sorry, Franco won’t be using his magic for threesomes.) But both actresses also said the movie didn’t feature as much greenscreen as expected. Raimi had real sets built for the castles, forests, etc.
- They didn’t have the rights to use the ruby slippers or other imagery from the original WIZARD OF OZ, so no cameos by the Tin Man, Scarecrow, etc.
- Yes, Bruce Campbell does make an appearance (hopefully as a Munchkin), as will Raimi’s “Classic” car…but in an altered form (i.e. parts of the engine were used in the Wizard’s machine).
- And Raimi’s movie based on The Shadow is dead. He loves the original pulp comic (not Alec Baldwin’s take) but said they never nailed the character or the script so he never went through with it.
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