Oz the Great and Powerful director Sam Raimi has been talking about his latest movie and how much influence was taken from the classic Wizard of Oz tale. Sam says that Oz the Great and Powerful is, as we pretty much knew, effectively a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, with a few additional bits of information from everybody involved.
Oz the Great and Powerful movie poster
Raimi was chatting to Total Film, when he explained, “I think The Wizard Of Oz is such a great film and I would never attempt to [remake that]. You could call [Oz] a prequel, that would be accurate - but I didn’t have to re-invent any of that fantastic history.”
He added, “Mitchell [Kapner, screenwriter] took about 40% of the events that were sprinkled here and there about Oz from Baum’s books and really created the other 60% himself out of his imagination, because there just wasn’t enough there. I gave him notes, I brought aboard a second writer to help fill out some other areas of the story, my brother did a little work on the script, and all the actors contributed. It really was a very big collaboration.”
Oz the Great and Powerful scene
Oz the Great and Powerful stars James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Zach Braff and is set to be released on March 8 in both the US and the UK.
Oz the Great and Powerful trailer
