If you’d recall, last year, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane talked a bit about his dark twisted sequel to THE WIZARD OF OZ based on his horror versions of the toys Twisted Land Of Oz. He wasn’t aware that Dakota Fanning was rumored to star. He also said Josh Olson wrote a draft based on his pitch and said that the folks at WB still didn’t like it enough to give it a go. Panjiba found the logline…
It’s a modern-day sequel. The story centers on Dorothy Neil, a bright and ambitious young lawyer for a prestigious law firm in Chicago. Neil is the grand-daughter of Dorothy Gale, who is now an old woman living in Kansas and telling her tales about her time in the land of Oz to a new generation of kids. However, trouble is afoot in Oz, as a new witch is destroying the magic that keeps the entire place running. While babysitting her boss’ kid, the kid and Dorothy Neil are brought back to Oz and united with the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow and tasked with killing an evil witch and restoring order in Oz.
The website says that apparently there’s a bit of a heated argument between Olson and McFarlane on the direction of the story. Olson wants to stay family friendly and faithful to the works of creator L. Frank Baum but McFarlane wants it dark and twisted. Right now WB is leaning more toward Olson’s take and so the logline above is for the project with a working title OZ: THE RETURN TO EMERALD CITY..
McFarlane wasn’t happy about this, he read Olsen’s draft and called it Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Olson who was nominated for screenplay for A History Of Violence spoke back, via MTV…
I was never hired to write anything based on “The Twisted Land of Oz.”
The project I pitched to Warner Brothers was based entirely on my own ideas, and the works of L. Frank Baum, the brilliant creator of “Oz.” My goal was to create a feature film that would be faithful to both Baum’s wonderful books, and the classic MGM film.
The project came out of a meeting I had with producers at Thunder Road, who had recently been pitched an “Oz” story by Todd, based, I gather, on his line of toys. For various reasons, they were not interested in moving forward with that version, but were intrigued by the idea of a new “Oz” film. When they brought the subject up to me, I came up with the idea of a straight-up sequel that they loved. We then went in to Warner Brothers, and the studio bought my pitch. I have no idea if Warner ever heard Todd’s pitch, but I can emphatically tell you that I never did.
Frankly, I’d love to see a dark, twisted version of OZ but I don’t think Olson is the problem, he’s an Oscar nominee scribe, if he’s told to do the dark twisted version, I believe he can do exactly that. Because right now, judging from that logline, the concept sounds generic and old and by that I mean why does it have to always be about ‘returning’?
