Filming has begun for the latest Sam Raimi project Oz: The Great and Powerful. The prequel to the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz is set to star James Franco as the young wizard, while Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams are set to star as the three witches.
James took time out of filming to discuss the movie a bit further. He explained, “The Wizard in the original 1939 film is an older man, so it’s another great opportunity to kind of do a new rendition on a franchise or a tradition, but it’s in a fresh way. There are no real expectations of how the younger version of Oz should be. I do follow a tradition, but I also have a certain amount of freedom to create the character.”
Franco added, “I’ve been in Detroit for almost a month now and we were rehearsing for quite a while and we’ve been shooting for about a week and it’s going very, very well” Oz: The Great and Powerful is expected to be released on March 8, 2012.
