UPDATE: The Wrap says that the discussions between WB and Zemeckis never went beyond that, so he won’t be directing their new WIZARD OF OZ after all. (But they’re still going to making it, so the director hunt resumes…)
November 16, 2010: Remember how INCEPTION was an original story that proved to be both creatively and financially successful? That could only lead to more original material being made, right?
So naturally, we’re getting yet another version of THE WIZARD OF OZ instead. Sigh…
While Disney is working on getting Sam Raimi and Robert Downey Jr. into the Emerald City for their own sorta-prequel THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ, Warner Bros. is following their own yellow brick road for a direct remake of the 1939 movie, which Deadline says will actually use the original script (which was reportedly worked on by 19 different people).
WB is talking with Robert Zemeckis to direct the project, which will be live-action and therefore spare us the soulless CG performance-captured creepers he’s been delivering since POLAR EXPRESS (although he’s still working on the new YELLOW SUBMARINE remake).
The source material, L. Frank Baum’s book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, is in the public domain, but the original movie version was owned by MGM (and now, apparently, by WB).
Meanwhile, Dorothy and the brainless straw man, frightened feline, and heartless robot will still be dealing with singing dwarfs, angry foliage, disembodied cranium, wicked witch and a squadron of terrifying flying monkeys in the animated DOROTHY OF OZ, and possibly a rumored live-action sequel called SURRENDER DOROTHY.
And that distant grinding noise you hear is just the stacks of original scripts being pushed through Hollywood’s shredders.