Dakota Fanning To Star In 'Wizard of Oz' Sequel

[TheatreFan4]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 2:36am

My oh my.
Dakota Fanning To Star In 'Wizard of Oz' Sequel

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 2:37am

How wildly unnecessary.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 5:46am

"You've still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she's much closer to the Ripley character from Alien than a helpless singing girl."

Say what? Ellen Ripley?
Is a munchkin going to burst from someone's chest?

[kec]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:03am

Dorothy didn't have a grandaughter in the books because... well, she moved to Oz and didn't get any older. Not sure this is a good idea.

[bschneid76]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 7:07am

I didn't realize Dorothy was a "helpless singing girl". This doesn't sound good at all.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:04am

This would make no sense at all. When did The Wizard of Oz take place anyway? Regardless of Dorothy not aging in Oz, she would probably be too old to have a modern day grandaughter.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:12am

Perhaps the Producers of Spiderman Turn Off the Dark are looking for new projects to lose money on!

[romantico]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:20am

If this was Amy Poehler playing Dakota Fanning, I would pay to see it!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19303/saturday-night-live-the-dakota-fanning-show#s-p42-st-i0

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19305/saturday-night-live-the-dakota-fanning-show#s-p43-st-i0

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:22am

I'd rather see Mamet's "Diary of Anne Frank"

[kec]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:37am

Marianne, the original story was written in 1900, so I would assume the story is set in that time frame, so based on that, if anything, it should be about Dorothy's great-grandaughter.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:45am

Yes, that would make more sense. But, it's also Dakota Fanning that makes this unappealing.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 10:57am

Fail.

[Hest882]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 11:08am

gouges eyes out in anticipation
Updated On: 8/24/09 at 11:08 AM

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 11:39am

Have they forgotten Disney's epic failure on the "darker take" called Return to Oz?

Families do not want a darker Oz. Look at all the people who still say they find Return to Oz to be nightmare-inducing after 20-some years.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 11:55am

The Wizard of Oz is ripe for re-imaginings and interpretation. Many people like "Return to Oz" and it is considered a cult classic. I think it sounds interesting. Even if it is bad, it takes nothing away from the original.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 12:36pm

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 12:41pm

There's very little actual information here, too little for me to pass judgment. Given Fanning's desire to get away from kiddie roles, this project may not be aimed at the family audience. The Wicked book and it's sequels did well despite their darkness.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 12:43pm

Also, "The Tin Man" mini-series was very well-recieved and popular with fantasy fans.There is room for more than MGM's "Wizard of Oz."

[kec]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 1:18pm

"Families do not want a darker Oz. Look at all the people who still say they find Return to Oz to be nightmare-inducing after 20-some years"

Well, the Oz books tend to get on the darker side a bit, especially the one with the Princess who changed heads --who was NOT Mombi, as it was in the film. That Princess was in the third book not the second.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 1:33pm

Princess Langwidere in Ozma of Oz was nowhere near as frightening as the images of a headless Jean Marsh stumbling around chasing Dorothy. In fact I always found her to be very non-threatening. She really isn't an evil character in the book. At most she's merely vain and apathetic, not caring either way if Ozma succeeds in her quest to restore the royal family as long as she can continue to sit around and admire herself all day. She even releases Dorothy without so much as batting an eyelash when she is asked to.

Anyway, the film will inevitably be compared to MGM's vision, especially if the producer is going to invite comparisons by using phrases like "a helpless singing girl."

Now did MGM water down the oddness and fear in Baum's original work? Absolutely. But I don't feel it was to the extent that some people like to remember it being. Even with her scenes severely trimmed a good number of children did, and still do, find Margaret Hamilton terrifying. I wish that the uncut versions of the Witch's scenes still exist so that we could see just how scary she reportedly was in the initial cut of the film. Sadly I doubt that footage exists anymore or else it surely would have surfaced by now, though we can always hope that it's sitting in the MGM vaults somewhere in a mislabeled canister.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 2:01pm

And for the record, I'm not opposed to more Oz stories on film. I loved the books while growing up and plan to start rebuilding my collection with the great Books of Wonder recreations of the original editions once I have some disposable income at hand.

However, if you are going to make new Oz films do yourself a favor and don't try to disparage or compare your new film to the MGM classic. It's just going to put its fans on the defensive and make you seem like a villain trying to discredit what is essentially a national treasure.
Updated On: 8/24/09 at 02:01 PM

[Hest882]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 2:50pm

Look, I'm a major fan of the Baum Oz books. (My husband goes one step further and loves the Ruth Plumly Thompson ones as well.) Neither one of us take our Oz cues from the MGM movie, and thus a tad darker isn't the problem. The problem is the press release's combo of Dakota Fanning, the director of Spawn, the Ripley reference, and the "helpless singing girl." It just points to a misdirected take on Oz and a wild misinterpretion of the originals.

[landryjames2]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 3:00pm

I think it is somewhat of a myth that the Baum Oz books are dark. I am not sure who or what faction of people started this, but it has been perpetuated as fact among many- especially since Return to Oz was released. I find the Oz books the exact opposite of dark. They are light, whimsical, and somewhat absurd at times. The darkest book in the whole series is arguably the first one- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in which Oz was an untamed place. As the series progresses, it actually turns into somewhat of a whimsical utopia.

Helpless Singing Girl bothers me. Maybe unwittingly, but Dorothy (even the MGM version) destroyed two witches and banished a humbug of a Wizard thus freeing the Land of Oz from all known evil.

Dakota Fanning doesn't bother me despite her over exposure a few years ago. Dakota, especially as a young child, is/was the epitome of John R Neill's Dorothy (second and most prolific of the Oz illustrators). Being Dorothy's Granddaughter does bother me--Hook, anyone?

In all reality, I am all for any take on Oz that wants to be done--but as someone mentioned above--do what you want, but don't disparage MGM's Oz. It just is so angering and invites critism which perhaps clouds people's judgement before they actually see the finished product.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 3:19pm

There are certainly some dark moments throughout the Baum books. The Scoodlers(?) in The Road to Oz who capture Dorothy and her current traveling companions who want to make them into soup, the Mangaboos and the wooden Gargoyles in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, etc, etc. But these are indeed balanced out, and even far outweighed by the light and whimsical nature. Baum knew the core of his audience was young children, and while he gave many moments of great suspense and a little fear for them, he definitely knew that in the end scaring them too much would certainly cause parents to put the books away and stop buying them.

As for Dakota Fanning. While I wouldn't have thought about it, you are right that she is very much in line with Neill's visualization of Dorothy. However there is always something that has bothered me about her. There has always been something unnatural about her, almost as if you are watching a cleverly disguised adult play a child. Quite frankly I think she creeps me out more than anything that Baum ever wrote.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/24/09 at 3:44pm

It's fine to adapt material. God knows I know. But honor it. Don't thumb your nose at it.

's all I'm sayin'.