What the world needs now is Oz…more Oz
For some reason Todd McFarlane feels like we need yet another version of “The Wizard of Oz“. Surprisingly enough, he has a “dark” take on the veritable fable based on his ‘The Twisted Land Of Oz‘(NSFW) toy line. He feels that with the 70th anniversary of the 1930’s film the time is right to destroy more childhood memories. “I’ve always been a believer that the reason remakes don’t work is that they stay too true to the source material.” McFarlane said, “Hopefully we’ll have a new script in the next month or two, and then we’ll be a lot closer to seeing whether it will grab some true momentum or whether we’re heading into development hell here.” My question is: “What’s the point?”
While it’s hard to come up with an exhaustive list since some remakes don’t us the name Oz in the title (“Tin Man” for example), I count about twenty-four to thirty different interpretations of “The Wizard of Oz”. From a short film in 1910, to the classic 1939 version with Judy Garland to a 1995 Russian version. Some have been in the theaters while some have been on television. Isn’t that enough? Is it really necessary to do yet another remake?
There’s a fascination these days with taking beloved children stories and remaking them into fantasy horror pieces, but two in particular have been in focus for decades: “Wizard of Oz” and “Alice in Wonderland”. Obviously, the most famous one right now is Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” which comes out next year.
Personally, I thought the idea of taking a children’s fable and updating it was cool and shocking the first time I heard it, but by now it’s lost it’s charm. In fact the only way to make it shocking nowadays is to make it unrecognizable (“Zardoz“, I’m looking in your direction). By that point, I think the creator would be better of leaving the topic alone and just making something original.
McFarlane is obviously talented and his “Twisted” line of toys is very successful, but he should just stick with remaking “Spawn” and be happy with it.
What do you think? Is it time for another reboot of the land of Oz?
