News > McFarlane, Olson to Reinvent Oz

Written by David Morgan

Todd McFarlane (Spawn) and Josh Olson (A History of Violence) have pitched an idea to Warner Brothers about a "revisionist" take on L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz. Olson will write the screenplay and McFarlane will produce. Variety reports that they are still working out the tone. They want it to be "Harry Potter dark, not Se7en dark." The characters will all essentially be Baum's but Olson and McFarlane will be creating plots all their own. Olson also wants this new version to be more akin to Lord of the Rings and promises Dorothy will be more like "Ripley from Alien than some helpless singing girl." These are all very helpful illustrations as far as what they are trying to accomplish, but don't you just hate it when writers/people speak entirely in references?