Remake of ‘Wizard of Oz’ Announced by New Line Cinema

A lobby card from the film 'The Wizard Of Oz,' shows a film still of a scene in which Amer
Hulton Archive/Getty
Simon Kent

Director Nicole Kassell has been joined by New Line Cinema to announce a new production of The Wizard Of Oz is now being planned.

More than 80 years have passed since the original film premiered, however Hollywood now appears ready for a revisit of the much-loved classsic, with Kassell saying she is well aware of the care needed when dealing with a piece of movie history.

“While the 1939 musical is part of my DNA, I am exhilarated and humbled by the responsibility of reimagining such a legendary tale,” Kassell said, according to Variety. “The opportunity to examine the original themes – the quest for courage, love, wisdom and home – feels more timely and urgent than ever.

“These are profoundly iconic shoes to fill,” she added, “and I am eager to dance alongside these heroes of my childhood as we pave a newly minted yellowbrick road!”

But Kassell’s version will not be a musical, Billboard reported. Instead New Line – a subsidiary of Warner Bros – promises a “fresh take” and a “reimagining” of the tale, the report outlined.
Based on the 1900 novel – The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz – the story of Dorothy and her pet dog Toto being swept from Kansas into the Land of Oz has been made into multiple films, musicals and TV shows over the years.
The most well-known adaptation is the 1939 classic starring Judy Garland, while in 2013, James Franco starred in a prequel called “Oz the Great and Powerful.”

Other efforts have been far less successful, according to the New York Post, with the flops numbering “The Wonderful Land of Oz,” in the 1970s and “Return to Oz,”  in 1985, the report said.

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