Shortly after he was announced this summer as the director for Disney’s “Oz The Great And Powerful,” Sam Raimi quickly poured cold water on reports saying he was still taking a wait-and-see approach as he was also working on the long-in-development adaptation of the massive video game, “World Of Warcraft.” Well, Raimi has finally committed to the project in what will certainly big a major franchise project for Disney. But perhaps most intriguingly, the Pulitzer prize winning writer of “Rabbit Hole,” David Lindsay-Abaire has been tapped to rewrite the project. And frankly, that’s the best news we’ve heard about this film so far.
We were definitely not so fond of the last draft of the film we read, dated April 2010, by Mitchell Kapner (of “Romeo Must Die,” no less). The story begins at the ‘Baum & Barley Bros.’ Circus in Kansas in the early 1900s. Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs, better known as Oz, is a showman and magician at the circus, who’s soon caught canoodling with the wife of a customer. When her husband catches them at it, a furious chase follows, ending with Oz fleeing in a hot air balloon. He gets caught in a terrible storm, collapses and wakes up in the magical land of Oz. He’s almost immediately greeted by Winkie Men (resembling the Winkie Guards from the original), Winged Monkeys and sweet witch Theodora, who tells him that he’s destined to defeat the Wicked Witch, etc. etc.
Lindsay-Abaire may initially seem like an odd choice, but he penned both “Robots” and “Inkheart” so family fare is some very comfortable territory for the writer. But most intriguingly Lindsay-Abaire previously worked with Raimi in the late stages of “Spider-man 4,” trying to get the script right prior to that project completely falling apart. As for the long attached Robert Downey Jr., while he’s still not yet officially on board, its said he’s close to signing on.
Production is slated to begin at some point in 2011 but we would guess that with Downey Jr.’s commitments to both “The Avengers” and Alfonso Cuaron’s hopefully-still-happening “Gravity,” it will go in front of cameras in the second-half of the year.
