‘Wizard of Oz’ Remake in the Works at Warner Bros. From ‘Black-ish’ Creator
Black-ish creator and four-time Emmy nominee Kenya Barris has been tapped to write and direct a Wizard of Oz reimaging at Warner Bros., Deadline is reporting, after a deal was signed just last week.
No details have been provided, though the outlet says that this will be a modern take on the 1939 classic. Development has just begun so not many other creatives are involved at this point, except for Sheila Walcott, who is overseeing for the studio.
Barris is currently in post-production of his feature directorial debut, You People, which he co-wrote with Jonah Hill. Hill also stars in the pic, alongside a stellar cast that includes Eddie Murphy, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lauren London, Nia Long and David Duchovny, among others. Barris also has a television event titled Entergalactic that he co-created with Kid Cudi in the pipeline, with the release date set for next month.
His writing track record also includes Girls Trip, starring Tiffany Haddish, Coming 2 America, Robert Zemeckis’ The Witches, and the upcoming remake of White Men Can’t Jump.
Wizard of Oz is, of course, one of the most beloved and iconic American movies of all time. Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s 1900’s children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the movie was directed by Victor Fleming, or at least that’s who the credit goes to. Production was infamously cursed, with several writers and directors coming and going, disagreements over many facets of the production, actors having to put up with a crazy work environment, etc. When released, it was a huge success at the box office and earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. It won for Best Original Song (Over the Rainbow, which is still iconic today) and Best Original Score. It also launched the career of a very young Judy Garland.
For now, WB has not greenlit the project, and it’s unknown if it will ever see the light of day. Pushback against a remake of The Wizard of Oz will probably be comparable to the backlash Hollywood would face for remaking Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, or Singin’ in the Rain. While remakes of classic movies have worked before (see Seven Samurai or A Star is Born), there’s something magical about The Wizard of Oz that makes a modern remake sound wrong. We’ll see how this develops.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
