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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Film What Do You Think of the Oz: The Great and Powerful Trailer?

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 2:26 PM

Here's the trailer for next year's Wizard of Oz prequel starring James Franco, directed by Sam Raimi:

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Comments (21) RSS

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Seeing the Wizard as a young man and as the hero instead of a manipulative, bigoted villain is messing with my head.

I've been too influenced by Wicked, I think.

Posted by Zuulabelle

on July 17, 2012 at 2:43 PM

This is why copyrights should expire.

Posted by Chip on July 17, 2012 at 2:45 PM

@2 confuses me.

As does this poll as I can only answer the question "What Do You Think of the Oz: The Great and Powerful Trailer?" with "Well, apparently, I'd make out with James Franco even with a stupid fucking mustache."

Posted by LogopolisMike

on July 17, 2012 at 2:52 PM

James Franco has jumped the shark that is James Franco.

Posted by gloomy gus on July 17, 2012 at 3:10 PM

i think it looks ok, but is that Carmen Sandiego at 1:10?

Posted by jns on July 17, 2012 at 3:14 PM

The original Wizard of Oz movie was way too female centric. I think this will correct that.

Posted by doloresdaphne on July 17, 2012 at 3:17 PM

Um, Tim Burton is the world's foremost Tim Burton impersonator. Plus, he does not own wimsy. Nor that aesthetic that he cribed from a dozen other sources then hogged and branded the fuck out of then beat to death while counting all that sweet Hot Topic money.
If they some how get the Patchwork Girl into this I'm in.

Posted by knobtheunicorn on July 17, 2012 at 3:17 PM

@#3
I think #2's argument would be that the copyright-holder has a strong incentive to extract all possible value from the copyright, and so poorly conceived films (and other projects) get made, because to do otherwise would mean the value inherent in that copyright was being wasted.

Your counter-argument, I take it, is that if Oz weren't copyright-protected anyone who wanted to do so could make their own Oz movie, potentially leading to an awful lot of terrible Oz films. This is true - but I'm guessing #2 would argue that once ideas for an Oz movie had to compete with every other movie idea in existence, and not just with every other idea of how to capitalize on the Oz copyright, the dumber ones might not get made.

Posted by Warren Terra on July 17, 2012 at 3:27 PM

I think this is called shit on film

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on July 17, 2012 at 3:31 PM

I fully realize that it was unrealistic of me to wish the Patchwork Girl into this movie. I just really, realy would like to see what the right actress and a very talented effects department could do with that character. that is all.

Posted by knobtheunicorn on July 17, 2012 at 3:32 PM

I'm still not over my James Franco impersonation, so I'll go see this, regardless.

I like the idea, but the cgi looks like something done on a circa 1995 Macintosh. I've seen better cgi on mid-level computer games.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on July 17, 2012 at 3:32 PM

Looks okay, I may even take my kid to see it, but it could never hold a candle to the 1939 film. Just like with Tim Burton's film, they do a great disservice to the story by having an adult be the center of the tale. Kids are creatures of wonder, these fantasy stories work much much better with a pre-adolescent as the focus.

That being said, you've got to be impressed that this 100-year old story still has such a hold on the national imagination.

Posted by Gurldoggie

on July 17, 2012 at 3:43 PM

The thing that sucks about this is that there are tons of good Oz stories that have never been made into movies, and this is going to be a steaming pile of shit. Yes please, give us a halfway decent adaptation of Ozma of Oz (Return to Oz doesn't count), The Patchwork Girl of Oz, or Tik-Tok in Oz. Just not this.

Posted by redemma on July 17, 2012 at 3:47 PM

I beg your pardon Return to Oz most certainly does count. It's a pretty basic movie, story-wise, but the look, feel and sound of it are amazing.

Posted by rejemy on July 17, 2012 at 4:00 PM

There are few movies as bad as the aural assault that movie previews have become. NEEDS MORE VOLUME.

Posted by cgd on July 17, 2012 at 4:03 PM

James Franco is my god. This looks absolutely fantastic.

Posted by Pope Peabrain on July 17, 2012 at 4:09 PM

James Franco is missing a chromosome or two...

Posted by fotoeve on July 17, 2012 at 5:12 PM

@1- same here. Wicked is the only "deconstruction" of the story worth anything at all, and I'd much rather see a faithful, non-crappy, non-musical version of that on screen than this. Looks a damn mess.

Posted by Cephalodude on July 17, 2012 at 5:18 PM

This looks pretty cool to me, though I agree with the people pointing out there's a lot of material in the Oz canon that is being neglected.

It'd be cool if some halfway decent set of animators did an Oz series adapted from the books.

Posted by dwightmoodyforgetsthings

on July 17, 2012 at 9:59 PM

@7. Oh, so true, and so well said.

Posted by doloresdaphne on July 18, 2012 at 4:01 AM

I'm with #14. Boo to you #13. I grew up watching repeatedly, and being thoroughly freaked out by Return to Oz. I fucking love that shit. Until the werewolf in True Blood showed up, James Franco was my celebrity fuck choice. I look forward to seeing this. That said, I agree that it would be great to see more of the Oz canon made into films.

Posted by bodhirungus on July 21, 2012 at 10:32 PM