Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and Josh Olson (A History of Violence) have pitched an idea to Warner Brothers to re-imagine The Wizard Of Oz, the classic novel by L. Frank Baum, famously turned into a 1939 film with Judy Garland as Dorothy, a Kansas girl who is whisked to a magical land by a tornado.
Olson is writing the script, with McFarlane producing. Variety reports that the tone is still being decided, but it's likely to be "Harry Potter dark, not Seven dark." Their new version will be similar to The Lord of the Rings in style, with heroine Dorothy revised as more "Ripley from Alien than some helpless singing girl."
McFarlane has previously created a range of Oz-inspired toys with a dark theme, although Olson is adamant McFarlane's toy line will not inform their intended movie: "I saw those toys, and Dorothy as some bondage queen isn’t something I want to do. The appealing thing about the Baum books to me is how wildly imaginative they are. There are crazy characters from amazing places."
No story specifics are available, but the film is being designed as a loose sequel to The Wizard Of Oz, instead of a remake. Olson: "We still want to take advantage of the first film, which might be the most beloved of all time, and rely on its place in your cultural memory to bubble beneath the surface. A lot of the plot is mine, but the characters are all Baum."
It all sounds very interesting, although you may remember 1985's sequel Return To Oz tapped into darker territory and was met with critical scorn and box office failure. So are audiences finally ready to have cherished memories of Judy Garland subverted like this?
