Oz, The Great and Powerful director Sam Raimi already has James Franco as his Wizard, and in February Mila Kunis (Black Swan) was cast as Theodorah, a young witch who goes on to become the Wicked Witch of the West.

Now Raimi has two more witches to find. Glinda, who becomes the Good Witch of the North, and Evanorah, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the East (the one who got crushed by Dorothy’s farmhouse upon her arrival). However it may be getting difficult for the director, as he and Disney are apparently at odds over who should be cast.

According to Vulture:

Raimi has been adamant about casting two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank as one of the elder witches in the film. However, Vulture is also informed that Disney is strongly opposed to such an idea. The studio has been pushing Raimi to offer the part to Michelle Williams, herself a two-time Oscar nominee.

On the face of it both are talented actresses who could each bring something to the role (whatever it involves), but Disney’s apparent strong opposition for Swank could, in part, be due to her latest movie, The Resident, going straight to DVD and the actress hasn’t really had a hit since 2007 rom-com P.S. I Love You with Gerard Butler.

Studios have short memories, so the fact Swank has two Oscar’s sitting in her house means little when Michelle Williams currently has the buzz from her Blue Valentine nomination a few months ago. Williams was also in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island last year with Leonardo DiCaprio, so she has the momentum studios are after.

Vulture reminds us that Raimi had a similar battle when casting Spider-Man a decade ago. Rami wanted Tobey Maguire, while Sony wanted American Beauty actor Wes Bentley. We know who won that battle, so we’ll have to see how the director fares with this one.

Oz, the Great and Powerful follows a circus wrangler (Franco) 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. Filming is set to begin in July so more casting news will be appearing over the next few weeks.

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The Screen Actors Guild Award nominations were announced today and brought a sigh of relief to all those keeping up with awards season news. After the Golden Globes released their strange nomination list on Tuesday, the SAGs were able to bring us back from Wonderland (shameless allusion intended).

Few of the nominations were surprising: The Social Network, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter, and The Kids Are All Right, grabbed nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the SAGs version of Best Picture.

The Best Actor category held the usual names. This year’s three constant nominees Colin Firth (The King’s Speech), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), and James Franco (127 Hours), were joined by Robert Duvall (Get Low) and last year’s awards season golden boy Jeff Bridges (True Grit). This, unfortunately, left Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) with no love.

It’ll be interesting to see how closely the Oscar’s supporting role nominations will reflect the SAGs. Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom), for instance, who was garnering lots of love early in the awards season, including one of the more legitimate Golden Globe nominations, was snubbed by the SAGs. However, Mila Kunis (Black Swan), and The Fighter duo (Amy Adams and Melissa Leo) are one step closer to the golden statuette with their SAG nominations.

I still think Christian Bale (The Fighter) is almost a lock for Best Supporting Actor come February, but Jeremy Renner (The Town) and Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech) might give him a run for his money with their continued nominations. I have a feeling that The Social Network’s Andrew Garfield’s absence from ballot may be a fatal blow toward his hopes of securing an Oscar nom.

Natalie Portman (Black Swan) is continuing to strengthen her bid for Best Actress glory, though she has Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) to deal with. The biggest surprise in this category was Hilary Swank (Conviction) who might be making a last minute run at the big prize. She does have a pretty solid track record with the Academy.

My only complaint is the lack of love that Inception keeps getting, having only received a single nomination (for Stunt Ensemble) from the SAGs. I know it didn’t have the most brilliant individual performances, but I still maintain that it boasted one of the best ensembles of 2010. Anyone with me?

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If I were to give you a quiz on Amelia Earhart right now, how well would you do? Probably not so well, unless you are a female pilot or someone interested in the pop culture of the early 20th Century. Everyone knows Earhart disappears during her attempt to circumnavigate the globe, probably ending up dead, possibly getting sucked into a time vortex, considering no remains were ever found.

If director Mira Nair and writers Anna Hamilton Phelan and Ron Bass decided to take the “sucked into the sixth season of Lost” crazy theory about Amelia’s death, this movie might have ended on a high note. It would have left me confused, but highly entertained instead of the reality: me, left bored and hungry after a boring film.

Amelia is beautifully shot and features a fantastic, possibly Oscar-worthy performance from Hilary Swank as the titular Earhart. The production used a real, polished, reflective Lockheed Electra while filming and re-created Amelia’s circumnavigation from African locations. The whole thing has a National Geographic gloss to it, and when the film’s score starts swelling every other scene, the gloss reveals itself to be sugary sweet and sticky.

There’s something about Amelia that doesn’t work.

Conflict, my screenwriting teachers told me, is the seed that sprouts all drama. One character is in a situation with another character and they both want something from each other. That sounds a lot like drama, and it might fit some loose definitions, but the sparkle of interesting interaction can be added to this scene by making both characters withholding of the other’s desire. Amelia fails to establish this basic level of conflict.

I’ve been describing it to people as a film made like a bad Disney sports movie. Swank as Amelia is an eyebrow-less but bright-eyed female pilot in 1928, when the film introduces her. She’s meeting with George Putnam (Richard Gere), a book publisher who hires her to command the first female-commanded flight across the Atlantic. Amelia isn’t psyched about not being able to fly, she’ll just be “commanding,” but the success of the flight will bring her fame enough to do what she wants, so she goes and successfully flies over the Atlantic. After that, there is no more conflict in the story.

Disney Sports films like The Mighty Ducks or Iron Will always take our heroes and put them in impossible situations. Even when the going gets tough and everyone laughs at a Jamaican bobsled team, the main characters hold on to their dreams of being great and won’t let anyone stop them. They work harder, train more and display more will power than the opposing team, so when they win, we’re ready. Amelia is like a Disney Sports movie character in the sense that she just wants to fly because it makes her feel free. Amelia, the movie, is not like Disney Sports because after Amelia crosses the Atlantic no one is interested in stopping her from doing anything.

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