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Finally: A Gritty “Wizard of Oz” Reboot
Reboots are all the rage in Hollywood. In the past decade they’ve delivered a Gritty Batman, Gritty Snow White, Gritty Superman, and even a Gritty Hansel and Gretel. Do we really need a Gritty Toto?
What do you think? Is NBC’s “Emerald City” worth watching or should Tinseltown maybe come up with a new idea or two?
Published in Entertainment
I did have some hope for just a moment. Just before she jumped in the car, she was standing next to a mobile home. I thought, “The mobile home is going to get carried away by the tornado? Okay, makes sense”.
In the books, wasn’t Dorothy G. five years old?
Born on leap year.
Leap day, in particular? Yep. I have an acquaintance who finally reached being a teenager in February. Chances are she will never reach her 21st birthday.
I don’t necessarily have a problem with a reboot. The Wizard of Oz is pretty much American folklore at this point, and is fair game to reinterpretation. It does, however, have to have something new to say to make it worthwhile. When I watch this trailer, I see Wizard with a little Game of Thrones and Maleficent rubbed on it. And nothing that wasn’t done, as others have said, in the Sci-Fi channel miniseries Tin Man.
“Tin Man” on Youtube.
I remember rather liking Tin Man when I saw it, but that’s probably mostly because I’ve always thought, er, highly of Zooey Deschanel.
Oh, you think with that organ, too?
I won’t be happy until I get my gritty reboot of Quick Draw McGraw, and his alter ego El Kabong.
“In the Wild West, crime was out of control – but justice had a sound: KABOOOOONG!”
Wow, that looks awful.
I don’t watch movies about sick people, or about depression, or grinding poverty. I don’t watch movies that glorify headstrong idiotic teenagers over their stupid parents. Or movies with weak, pathetic protagonists (yes, Hamlet is out, too). Or preachy anti-business or pro-earth worship themes.
The real world has plenty of all of these things. My real world does.
I watch movies for escapist fun at the end of a hard-worked productive day. Any drama has to be the kind that does not exist in my reality: so Crown or Grantchester or Luther or Breaking Bad all work well. I am enjoying Man in a High Castle and Dark Matter. Gripping fun.
So this one looks like painless fun. Amusing and forgettable. Think The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe meets Sharknado.
Dear God that looks horrible. That isn’t the world of Oz even remotely. It’s like someone dropped the scripts for Mad Max and Wizard of Oz and didn’t bother sorting them.
Points for knowing Dorothy’s last name! That’s a good trivia question to throw at people.
“This is the city: Emerald City, Oz. I work here. I’m a cop.”
I have suddenly discovered a new found appreciation for the creative genius of Ron Cohen, Joel Schumacher and Sidney Lumet.
I could probably go in on a movie like this, but you know a series is going to go flat pretty fast.
Yes we need new ideas – is there such a thing? There is a very dark mindset to everything coming out of the entertainment world nowadays. Making a TV show out of The Exorcist? Really? A sweet innocent story like The Wizard of Oz being turned into another comic book style si-fi-horror (ok the witch gave me nightmares when I was little but that’s beside the point) – why?
Triple ugh! We could seriously use some good old fashioned laughter, and innovative mysteries and dramas. I long for the Woody Allen, Seinfeld, or beautiful musical style shows and movies. People used to go to bed laughing – comedy skits, but people don’t act anymore – it’s all reality TV. There are so so many good books that could be turned into great movies. This is not one – leave perfection alone.
Jon,
So much talent & production value with no place to go. We have very talented actors & actresses. We have fantastic production values & special effects. The problem is that we don’t have the intellectual gravitas to make good use of them. More & more comic books and fantasy. Even staying with the genre it takes a great deal more that this to be JRR Tolkien or Philip K. Dick. When the best minds of a generation are dumbed down by the incessant ideological ball & chain of leftism, you don’t get great screenplays. If it isn’t in the screenplay already you can’t synthesize it with talent and effects. You may be able to sell it but you can’t make it good. Who will want to see these films 60 years after they are made?
Regards,
Jim
The gritty version of The Music Man (Harold Hill molests the band members).
The Sound of Music (Captain von Trapp is an enthusiastic Nazi.)
MWM,
I don’t want to see your films but are you available as a marketing consultant?
Regards,
Jim
Actually, I screwed up the Sound Of Music and missed the twist – Maria should be the Nazi!
I have often been amazed at the number of movies and TV shows that are remakes. I think there is even a new Miami Vice on TV now. Of course, you just can’t copy the old show word for word, so you have to change it. Which irritates the fans of the old show. People who aren’t fans of the old show probably won’t watch anyway. So nobody’s happy. I wonder, “How do they expect this to work?”
But it must work, because they keep doing it.
In many ways, I find modern movies to be just remarkable – they look and sound absolutely incredible. But it must be really difficult to come up with new characters and story lines.
I’ve read that they do remakes because the cost of development is high, so they are risk averse. But to me, messing around with The Wizard of Oz is pretty risky. I just don’t get it.
Humans have been coming up with new characters and story lines since the day of Og the Caveman through the present.There are plenty of original characters and story lines in books published this year. I know, because I read lots of them. That the movie industry finds it difficult to come up with new characters and story lines speaks more of the intellectual bankruptcy of that industry than of any real difficulty in coming up with something new.
Seawriter
Judy Garland she isn’t. Would never go see this movie.
They are coming up with new characters and stories. They are just disguising them by calling them by titles of previous works that they are unrelated to and using the character names even though it is not the same character.
Actually this looks closer to a remake of the very good TV Miniseries Sci-fy did a few years ago called Tin-man. It was really enjoyable. I doubt this version will be more interesting to watch.
I really wish they would make a TV series that actually followed the books closely. All the movie versions are just cheap imitations of the books.
Yes! Maria, in sinister German accent like a Bond villain: “Captain, you are blowing ze vistle, but ze children, zey do not come. You are vondering vere ze children are, yes? Zey are now serving ze Fuhrer.”
I wouldn’t say cheap imitations. They deviate from the books, usually starting with a much older Dorothy. The talkie version before the 1939 version was kind of fun with some of its deviations. The ’39 version was anything but cheap. Then again, it is probably easier working with a teen-aged or adult actress than with a child.
They’re betting the money they spend on a movie that was a yearly event on TV once upon a time before home video. Moreover, they are doing it while jerking around the original characters. The people who remember the original will probably not be enthused, and the people who don’t have no idea what is being reinvented.
It will probably, therefore, do well. Not as well as something original might do, but small bets yield small payoffs.
#bringbackthesilverslippers
Bartender, I’ll have what Matt is having…
If you hadn’t told me (I watched that trailer on mute because I’m doing a phone conference right now), I would not have guessed that this trailer has anything whatsoever to do with “the wizard of oz.”
I’m not clear why Hollywood can’t just make new stories. Seems like they take old names as bait for people to watch, then write wholly different stories. Why not simply make the new movies?