Our interview last week with Todd McFarlane regarding the progress, or lack of it, on a new Warner Bros. Wizard of Oz movie, was picked up by several sources, not least of which was Ain't It Cool. AIC subsequently received a missive from original Oz screenwriter Josh Olson, clarifying his position.
McFarlane's vision of Oz in the Twisted line of action figures optioned by Warners for the film, includes a stripped and bound Dorothy being led on a leash by demonic munchkins, and a decidedly un-cowardly looking lion, amongst other "re-imaginings". He told us that Olson's draft of the script was being re-written, after a lukewarm Warners didn't find it "sexy" enough.
But Olson counters by claiming that his script was the result of his own pitch to the studio, connected only peripherally to McFarlane's.
"McFarlane's involvement with the project and the fact that his line of toys live up to that 'Twisted' epithet has led to a lot of confusion in the last couple of years," he says. "The entire project began when McFarlane approached the producers with the idea of doing a new version of Oz. For various reasons, they chose not to go with his approach. [In the version I wrote] there was no bondage Dorothy, and no gigantic Toto monster. I was going for a Harry Potter tonality. The last I heard, they were looking for writers to make it funnier. I've never met Todd. I don't even know if he's read my script."
"You don't enter into a project like a sequel to The Wizard of Oz for a major studio believing you'll absolutely be the only writer on the project," he concludes. Which suggests, if nothing else, that there will be many more hands stirring this particular pot before anything goes in front of the cameras. Watch this space.