DVDizzy Forum

I'm just making sure...

Is Johnny Depp now in the title role, or is the role still Robert Downey, Jr.'s?

None of the above. It's James Franco now.

Okay, this is all getting VERY confusing!! Disney, make up your mind, PLEASE!!!!!

DisneyJedi wrote:Okay, this is all getting VERY confusing!! Disney, make up your mind, PLEASE!!!!!

I think we might be able to get the weather to make up it's mind faster than we could Disney's

I don't know where you were, but Franco was cast ages ago. And apparently, they're going to start shooting this in July, so Franco is stuck in the role unless he decides to back out at the last minute.

Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz are added to the cast, they will be playing two witches ruling Oz by the time the wizard dropped in. It sounds more and more like a sort of Wicked rip off to me.

Disneykid wrote:Rachel Weisz is Evanorah, the Wicked Witch of the East:

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/20418/ ... f-the-east

I think that's a fantastic choice. I love Weisz, and we don't get to see her play evil very often. So right now we've got one amazing piece of casting and two passable ones.

Let's see who they get to play Glinda. Apparently, in this version, she's the Good Witch of the North ala the MGM musical instead of the South as in the book. I guess that means we won't have the fourth witch thrown into the line-up. Hopefully they get someone with a lot of drawing power. I know Disney's banking on this becoming a hit akin to Burton's Alice, but that cast was a force to be reckoned with. They need more big names if they want to catch the public's eye. I don't know how old Glinda's supposed to be in relation to the other two witches, but I wouldn't mind seeing someone like Nicole Kidman attached to the role.

If they give the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion cameos, they could also get notable actors to provide the voices (assuming all three would be CG/puppetry).

Nicole Kidman would be great! (Other choices could be Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter or Jodie Foster.)

Michelle Williams is Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Williams is a very good actress, though I'm having trouble seeing her acting as ethereal and all-knowing as Glinda, unless the character starts off differently in this version. Weisz's casting is the only one I'm fully enthusiastic about. The others inspire more of a "Hmm..." reaction from me. It'll be interesting to see how this all comes together.

Who going to play the second most important character Dorothy?

Dorothy's not in this film. This film is a prequel to show how the Wizard ended up in Oz. Judging by how old the Wizard is described in the original story, this one seems to take place maybe 50-ish years before Dorothy's house landed.

Dorothy has to be in the movie!!! She be there at the end with everyone else, like The Lion of Oz did.

The Good Witch of the South always gets the shaft lol. I think Nicole Kidman would be a good choice as Glinda though. As for the Wicked Witch of the West hmmmmmmmmm Meryl Streep =D

This movie has been given a release date of 3/8/2013, akin to Alice in Wonderland last year. I found this on Box Office Mojo today.

http://boxofficemojo.com/schedule/?view ... 013&p=.htm

Logo:

Stupid. People will read that as "Z: The Great and Powerful"

SWillie! wrote:Stupid. People will read that as "Z: The Great and Powerful"

Really? I automatically saw it as Oz. People aren't totally stupid, you know.

The 'z' within the 'o' has been used for many Oz films - both on marketing materials and in the actual film. To me, it's a familiar layout.

Hmm, well maybe I'm wrong. But I think it's a pretty uninspired, boring logo regardless.

It makes me think of the key from Return to Oz.

Hmm . . . I haven't watched that in forever . . .

OK so here's the total cast list -

CAST:
James Franco as Oscar Diggs/Oz
Mila Kunis as Theodora
Michelle Williams as Glinda the Good Witch
Rachel Weisz as Evanora
Zach Braff as Frank[2] and Finley
Joey King as China Girl
Abigail Spencer as Mrs. Hamilton

PLOT:
Oz The Great and Powerful” imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved character, the Wizard of Oz. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity—and even a bit of wizardry—Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
____________________________________________________________

Disney Pictures’ fantastical adventure “Oz The Great and Powerful,” directed by Sam Raimi, went in front of the cameras at the brand-new Raleigh Studios in Pontiac, Michigan, on Monday, July 25, 2011, boasting a stellar cast that includes Academy Award® nominee James Franco (“127 Hours”) as the young wizard, Golden Globe® nominee Mila Kunis (“Black Swan”) as the witch Theodora, Academy Award® winner Rachel Weisz (“The Constant Gardener”) as Kunis’ sister Evanora and two-time Oscar®-nominated actress Michelle Williams (“Brokeback Mountain,” “Blue Valentine”) as Glinda, the Good Witch.

The cast also includes Emmy® and Golden Globe® nominee Zach Braff (“Scrubs,” “Garden State”), who will play Franco’s circus assistant as well as lend his vocal talents to one of the CGI creatures in the story — Finley, the winged monkey who accompanies the magician on his journey to Oz; and 12-year-old actress Joey King (“Ramona and Beezus”), who will voice another CGI character in the story, China Girl, who also joins the future Wizard on his excursion through Oz.
______________________________________________________________

The film will be produced by industry veteran Joe Roth, along with executive producers Grant Curtis (the “Spider-Man” trilogy, “Drag Me to Hell”), Philip Steuer (“The Chronicles of Narnia” series) and Palak Patel. The screenplay was written by Mitchell Kapner, (“The Whole Nine Yards”) and David Lindsay-Abaire (“Rabbit Hole,” “Robots”).

Raimi has assembled his own band of technical wizards and movie magicians on the project, which includes cinematographer Peter Deming (“Mulholland Dr.,” “Drag Me to Hell”), two-time Academy Award®–winning production designer Robert Stromberg (“Alice in Wonderland,” “Avatar”), Oscar®-winning film editor Bob Murawski (“The Hurt Locker,” the “Spider-Man” trilogy), veteran Oscar®-nominated costume designer Gary Jones (“Spider-Man 2,” “The Talented Mr. Ripley”), visual effects Oscar® winner Scott Stokdyk (“Spider-Man 2,” “Spider-Man”) and Academy Award®–winning special makeup artist Howard Berger (“The Chronicles of Narnia” series), who will create the looks of several of the unique denizens of Oz, including creatures such as the Whimsies, the Tinkers and the Winkies, as well as the ghastly look of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Production on “Oz The Great and Powerful” will take place entirely on site at the new Raleigh Michigan Studios, the 200,000 square foot sound stage facility in Pontiac, Michigan, once the location of General Motors’ Centerpoint business campus and truck manufacturing plant.

“Oz The Great and Powerful” will be released through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on March 8, 2013.
_________________________________________________________________

Disney hopes that Oz: The Great and Powerful will replicate the commercial performance of a similar 3-D fantasy film; Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010)


I'm really looking forward to this movie! I'm now hoping Maleficent gets the green light and I will just EXPLODE!

I love Mila Kunis! I can't wait to see what she brings to the project!