Update Below: Thanks to the astounding $210 million worldwide opening of Tim Burton’s bland “Alice In Wonderland,” every studio around town is eager to repeat the success.
Warner Bros. are set to go down the yellow brick road again and are currently in development on two different “Wizard Of Oz” films. The first project, simply titled “Oz” is set up over at New Line and is based around a script by Darren Lemke (“Shrek Forever After,” “Jack The Giant Killer”). Given the credits involved, we’re guessing “Oz” is the family friendly version, as the second project is decidedly darker and based on a script by Josh Olson (“A History Of Violence”). This version, which “focuses on a granddaughter of Dorothy who returns to Oz to fight evil,” is going for a darker tone, with talk of bringing on “Spawn” creator Todd MacFarlane in a producer role.
So which one will go in front of cameras first? Well, if Warner Bros. are looking to replicate the success of “Alice In Wonderland” you can count the edgier, darker version out. Our guess is the family friendly version is more likely to get approval for studio brass who will be eager to have another potential franchise to go to once “Harry Potter” ends its run. While the darker version sounds intriguing, we don’t see WB wanting to stray too far from their classic film, which audiences around the world are already familiar with. How much do you want to bet this will be in 3D as well?
Update: Collider have updated their story, having checked with some sources, and found that this is all old information — while the two projects were in active development, there hasn’t been much movement on either for a year. Still, with the phenomenal opening of “Alice in Wonderland” over the weekend, it’s not crazy to imagine that some bright spark at Warner Bros will revive one of them in the near future.
Original story posted 03/10/10, 6:02pm