As TZ readers know, I have been on many film sets in the past three years, sometimes welcome, sometimes not so. In the case of my visit to the set of Oz, Disney's twenty-five million-dollar sequel to The Wizard of Oz, I was not so welcome. My intention had been to get the story behind the making of this trouble-plagued film, while simultaneously covering the less controversial elements (the makeup, effects, costumes, et cetera). What I discovered when I reached Elstree Studios outside London, however, was that I was perceived as a Wicked Witch of journalism, out to wreak havoc on the film and its director. The result was far from a pleasant experience; but, in spite of that, I believe that Oz director Walter Murch, given what I know about his work and his Oz script, may just surprise everyone (including nervous Disney execs) and turn his version of life in the Emerald City into (you should pardon the expression) a gem.
When Disney first announced plans to make a film called Return to Oz (the title has been reduced because of a copyright problem), my first reaction was to wonder how they could dare to tamper with a classic. In fact, though, there have been many film adaptations of L. Frank Baum's Oz tales, including one written and produced by Baum himself — released in 1910 by Selig Pictures as a one-reeler. Baum even formed his own studio — The Oz Film Manufacturing Company — in 1914 to adapt his sequels to The Wizard of Oz, and he subsequently shot three films: The Patchwork Girl of Oz, The Magic Cloak of Oz, and His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz. A silent version of The Wizard of Oz was even made in 1924 with a pre-Laurel and Hardy Oliver Hardy as the Tin Man, and there was also an animated Oz film in color produced in 1933. It wasn't until the 1939 MGM film musical that Oz and Dorothy were deified by the version starring Judy Garland and directed by Victor Fleming.
Walt Disney's interest in making his own film version of Baum's tales goes back to 1937, when he first inquired about the copyright, but it wasn't until 1954 that he actually purchased the rights to eleven books, including The Marvelous Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz (the two primary sources for the Oz script). In fact, in 1957 Disney himself announced the imminent production of a live-action musical called The Rainbow Road to Oz. But that film was never made, and Walt Disney did not live to see his studio produce any Oz films.
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