Wizard of Oz to be remade

[The Deadman]

In the spotty history of movie remakes, this may be the worst idea ever: a remake of the all-time classic fantasy film The Wizard of Oz.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Warner Brothers is mulling two possible Oz films:

One project, called "Oz," currently lives at Warner's New Line label. It's being produced by Temple Hill, which is behind a little franchise called "Twilight," and has a script written by Darren Lemke, a writer on the upcoming "Shrek Forever After."
A second "Wizard of Oz" project, set up at Warners proper, skews a little darker —it's written by "A History of Violence" screenwriter Josh Olson and focuses on a granddaughter of Dorothy who returns to Oz to fight evil.


The second idea sounds a lot like Tim Burton's current Disney hit, Alice in Wonderland. But the guy who wrote David Cronenberg's violent, dark rumination on America??

In the history of Oz follow-ups, almost no one remembers 1974's Journey Back to Oz or 1985's Return to Oz, with good reason, though the latter has its fans. The musical and movie The Wiz also has boosters, but about the only widely popular follow-up to the original was the hit musical Wicked, based on the best-selling book by Gregory Maguire. (We're also partial to Syfy's miniseries Tin Man, but that's us.)

So we're inclined to say: Let's just watch our new Blu-ray of the original 1939 movie and leave it at that, OK? You agree?

http://scifiwire.com/2010/03/monkeys...-of-our-bu.php