You can't improve on the original!
Posted on 11/17/2010 5:28:25 AM PST by Red Badger
Whenever you remake a revered Hollywood film, there’s bound to be controversy, but going right to the original material is certainly an interesting approach. Warner Bros is in early talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct a live-action remake of the The Wizard of Oz and plans to use the original script from the 1939 classic. Warner Bros owns the screenplay because Ted Turner bought it along with the MGM library before Warner Bros bought Turner’s empire.
This latest Oz twist comes as Disney is trying very hard to mount The Great And Powerful Oz. Sam Raimi is developing that film while he simultaneously develops World of Warcraft for Warner Bros and Legendary. Disney and Raimi want Robert Downey Jr as their star. The original Wizard of Oz script had a total of 19 writers (seems not much has changed in Hollywood) with many of them uncredited, including Bert Lahr who played the film’s Cowardly Lion.
This wouldn’t be the first hugely high-profile remake for Zemeckis; he's in the middle of a Yellow Submarine animated redux for Disney, scheduled for a 2012 release. Also, after working for years in performance-capture animation, Zemeckis has been moving toward a return to a live-action films, attaching himself to Timeless also at Warner Bros.
The original is great. I won’t be waching any remake.
Robert Downey at Dorothy? Seems about right.
Downey as the wizard..............
Sometimes it is not essential to put the “sarcasm” on the posting....
Johnny Depp as Dorothy
There are some movies that have become American treasures that I feel nobody should try to improve on, just because they can. This movie is one of those treasures.
Can’t Hollywood come up with anything original?
Why remake a 70 year old classic?
I find the notion of a “Yellow Submarine” remake to be at least as horrific and unnecessary as a Wizard of Oz remake.
You can't improve on the original!
Next up, a remake of “Casablanca” and a re-paint of the Sistine Chapel.
If Disney is doing a remake of Wizard of Oz, watch for:
1) hidden Phallus symbolisms—probably the twister in Kansas
2) secret references to satanism —Oz
3) subtle metaphors for pedophilia—Scarecrow/Dorthy relationship
4) homosexual references—Wicked Witch of West’s army
5) Witchcraft Glorification—Glenda the Good Witch
6) Anti-Militarism—the cowardly lion
7) Ant-Capitalism—Munchkin land being a ‘little people’s paradise’
8) Anti-Christian- Dorthy will surely be fleeing from Auntie Em because Em is a ‘bitter clinger’
Ugh.
Hollywood is bereft of original thinking. There were a whole bunch of Oz books. Make a sequel!
1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
1904 The Marvelous Land of Oz
1907 Ozma of Oz
1908 Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
1909 The Road to Oz
1910 The Emerald City of Oz
1913 The Patchwork Girl of Oz
1914 Little Wizard Stories of Oz
1914 Tik-Tok of Oz
1915 The Scarecrow of Oz
1916 Rinkitink in Oz
1917 The Lost Princess of Oz
1918 The Tin Woodman of Oz
1919 The Magic of Oz
1920 Glinda of Oz
Drag Me to Oz?
Ugh. I’m sure Zemeckis will make the movie visually stunning (he is a ‘wiz’ at that), but why mess with such a revered classic?
This ranks right up there with the (thankfully) failed plan to remake Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, and the short-lived rumor that Sean Penn was looking to star as Rick in a remake of Casablanca.
I knew that there were several other releases prior to the “original”. The “original” to me has Judy Garland in it.
Well.... no.
The new movies coming out are all V2.0 or higher of older movies.
Here's a list of some recent movies.
TOY STORY 3.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
AVATAR
FRIDAY THE 13TH
TERMINATORS
STAR TREK
THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE
PREDATORS
ZOMBIE whatever
VAMPIRE whatever
THE KARATE KID III
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.