Todd McFarlane Goes to ‘Oz’

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 22, 2007

Are you ready to take a journey into the Twisted Land of Oz? It is an upcoming film project recently optioned by Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures. Based on Todd McFarlane’s Twisted Land of Oz action figures, which have a cult following among collectors. The film will be a revisionist take on the original The Wizard of Oz books by L. Frank Baum. It will take us back to the land of “Oz”, where once there was a wizard and now there are some scary creatures.

McFarlane is producing the film, which is set to be penned by Josh Olson (A History of Violence), someone who shares his vision for the project.

I saw those toys, and Dorothy as some bondage queen isn’t something I want to do,” Olson told Daily Variety. “The appealing thing about the Baum books to me is how wildly imaginative they are. There are crazy characters from amazing places. I want this to be Harry Potter dark, not Seven dark.”

“My pitch was ‘How do we get people who went to Lord of the Rings to embrace this?’ ” said McFarlane. “I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You’ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she’s much closer to the Ripley from ‘Alien’ than a helpless singing girl.”

From where I am sitting, this is a little bit of exciting. The Wizard of Oz is a classic that has garnered many off-shoot projects, including Wicked. McFarlane, the creator of the popular Spawn character, has a wicked imagination. The only thing left to see is how well he can transfer this wildly popular vision to the cinematic medium. One thing is for sure, we will be keeping an eye on this production.

Check out McFarlane’s site, Spawn.com for more.

On the Side: Todd McFarlane designed the Edmonton Oiler’s third jersey. Sweet…

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