Back in June Disney offered Spider-Man director Sam Raimi Oz, the Great and Powerful which follows a circus wrangler who is transported by a tornado to the mysterious world of Oz. Once there he gets mistaken for a know-it-all, and eventually becomes the Wizard of Oz.
At the time Raimi was unsure what his next project would be as he was also developing the World of WarCraft movie, but now the director has committed to Oz, and Robert Downey Jr. may soon follow.
From Deadline:
The studio has gotten director Sam Raimi to commit to Oz: The Great And Powerful for his next film.
Downey hasn’t locked in yet, but it’s looking good. He was initially lukewarm on Oz and turned down several early approaches. The staggering billion dollar worldwide gross of Disney’s Alice In Wonderland certainly helps the argument though, and Downey has been warming as Raimi honed the movie.
They also mention that David Lindsay-Abaire, who was a writer on the now dead Spider-Man 4, will be re-writing the script.
There are a few other Wizard of Oz films in development. Warner Bros. are currently deciding between two projects; one by the producers of Twilight which is “a comparatively faithful, non-musical adaptation of the original L. Frank Baum novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and has franchise potential.
The second one, written by History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson, is darker and focuses on the granddaughter of Dorothy who returns to Oz to fight evil. Universal also has the Oz-inspired musical Wicked in development. Oz, the Great and Powerful is now ahead with a director attached, and filming set to begin sometime next year (in 3D).
