Director Sam Raimi takes us back to the land of Oz in this week's Oz the Great and Powerful, and making a prequel to the 1939 classic is no small feat. I recently sat down with Raimi at the press day for the film, where he sang the praises of his cast and explained why James Franco was the perfect choice to play the titular wizard.
Oz the Great and Powerful opens in theaters this week, but I got to visit the film's set during production way back in 2011. Between takes on the set, we sat down with director Sam Raimi to discuss adapting author L. Frank Baum's work for the big screen, and setting the prequel apart from the original Wizard of Oz. Here's what Raimi had to say:
How do you stay true to L. Frank Baum's work but also give the film's story a modern feel?
Sam Raimi: First of all, I so loved the movie The Wizard of Oz that I was afraid to read versions of it that were not exactly what I loved so much about the movie. This is very strange; I didn’t want the book to mess up the movie for me. But then, after I read the screenplay, which I loved, I started to read the books and appreciate Baum's work. I was so surprised at how exactly [the movie] The Wizard of Oz was his first book. His work is fresh right now. It's brilliant and affecting and the characters don't need to be refreshed by anybody. However, the screenplay is based on a lot of elements of a lot of his books. In many of his books he would go back and talk about the wizard. There’s a little bit about the wizard in the first one, a little bit about the wizard in three and four. He went back and said, "Here’s how the wizard got here and this was his backstory." So what the writer, Mitchell Kapner, did was he took all those elements that were given to the audience in later books that he's put them back in chronological order of what happened to the wizard, how the wizard got there to the Land of Oz. . . . What might have the Wicked Witch or these other characters have been doing during this time? Sometimes it was written about, sometimes it wasn't. So, I think Mitchell Kapner could best speak about it, but he’s taken elements of the books and rearranged them in what could have happened. It’s a "what if" story.
How have your feelings about the original movie affected this project?
SR: Yeah, it's the movie that I love. That's what I fell in love with and what terrified me and exhilarated me. I didn't want to have anything to do with a screenplay having anything to do with that movie because I didn't want to mess with it or tread upon its fine nature or use it in any way. But I read the script and it was a love poem to that movie, or those books, that I didn't know at the time. I felt that it was someone who so admired the movie and they were trying to enhance it and, for me, it never took away. And, I also thought, nothing could ever take away from that movie. It's so brilliant and enduring. I wanted to honor the movie.
We don’t have many American fairy tales. So how do you keep a fairy tale distinctly American? What do you make it about to make it resonate with an American audience?
SR: I have read that people consider Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, his first book, America's first myth or America's first fairy tale. But I think it's uniquely American because there's a little bit of greed involved in it. It's also the story of an entrepreneur, a guy who, with his ingenuity and can-do attitude, drives off those wicked witches and saves the day. It's also the story of people rising up for freedom, and I think that’s an American story of the American Revolution. Farmers and, in this case, Quadlings and Munchkins and Tinkers, rising up to drive off the tyrants or the despots or whatever you want to call the Wicked Witches. So those elements are American, but I think it's not primarily American. I think it's universal, the story of all of us who are capable of doing good and the hero being made because he recognizes that ability within himself and he grows to do something greater than himself. He grows to take part in a cause that's more important than his selfishness or his greed. He learns the true value of the gifts that he’s been given as a magician. They can be used, not just to entertain others and for his own profit, but to uplift others, to set them free and to, in this case, drive off the most dreaded villains of all, the Wicked Witches. I think it’s a more universal type of story than just an American story.
Sam Raimi is the director of Disney's Oz the Great and Powerful, and he described the highly anticipated project as a "great collaboration" with his all-star cast. Sam gave us the scoop on why James Franco was a good fit for the title role, what elements audiences will recognize in this film, and the new characters being brought into the mix. Along with James, Oz the Great and Powerful stars Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, and Rachel Weisz and will hit theaters March 8.
Sam Raimi, the director of Oz: The Great and Powerful, joined stars of the film, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis, and producer Joe Roth at a press conference at Comic-Con to chat about the upcoming film. In the Wizard of Oz prequel, Kunis plays Theodora (who eventually becomes the Wicked Witch of the West), while Williams plays her counterpart, Glinda (the Good Witch), and each shared about their experience of working on the fantasy blockbuster. Raimi also gave us a few more details about the movie (the trailer for which was also unveiled at Comic-Con!) and about star James Franco, but it wasn't all Oz talk; Williams also gamely chatted about a Dawson's Creek reunion! Here are the highlights:
On the story:
Sam Raimi: "This is a very straightforward family picture. I would say it's a very classically Disney type of movie. It's all about these characters and their interactions with each other, the friendships they make. How some characters are sinners, how they hurt others, how those sins can grow. It's about finally recognizing the things you do in this world have consequences, and how to be the best person you can be is really the story of this film. That's the most exciting kind of story for me, the ones that have character growth, and I think James Franco's character has a little bit of character growth in this film."
On the honor of working with director Sam Raimi:
Mila Kunis: "Listen, Sam is fantastic. I don't know where to begin. I would do craft service for Sam if he asked me to."
SR: "Would you do craft service?"
MK: "Yes, Sam Raimi! . . . He's so supportive of everybody around him, of his crew, and of his cast. He is incredibly inspiring to work with. You go to work and you want to make him happy."
Michelle Williams: "I had never made a movie like this before. I've never made such a big movie before. I didn't know what it was going to be like. I didn't know if the things that concern me, Sam would have time for, or patience for. Not only did he have time and patience in the beginning when we were rehearsing, he had patience for them on the 17th hour of the sixth day. For me it was a very holistic experience; it was a real melding of my work life and my personal life. My film family and my real family."
On working with beautiful actresses like Williams and Kunis:
SR: "Wow [growls jokingly]. It's great to work with them because they're great actresses. As beautiful as they are, that would become meaningless if they weren't brilliant actresses, and that's what we needed for the story. They both have complex roles and complex interactions with the other characters in the piece and they just do a beautiful job performing them. It's very funny and realistic and they are a pleasure to watch. And yes, they are not hard on the eyes, those girls."
On how Franco has changed since working on Spider-Man:
SR: "He's a great collaborator. James was much less collaborative when I first worked with him. He was a real serious actor, I think he still had his James Dean hat on; he was doing it his way. I worked with him with certain limitations. We couldn't communicate about everything as deeply as we did on this picture. [In this movie] there was a great sense of openness, collaboration, and patience. Now that James is a filmmaker, he understands all the things that go into a shot. He's developed that patience."
To get some more details on the film and what Williams said about a Dawson's Creek reunion, just keep reading.
Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis teamed up yesterday for a panel promoting their Oz: The Great and Powerful at Comic-Con. They're in San Diego along with the picture's director, Sam Raimi, to discuss their Wizard of Oz adaptation before it hits theaters next March. Michelle wore a printed Giulietta for the occasion, while Mila paired a Theyskens' Theory jacket with a Rag & Bone shirt.
After posing for pictures, the trio took the stage to speak about their project. In particular, Michelle talked about her experience with Sam. She said, "I've never made such a big movie before. I didn't know what it was going to be like. I didn't know if the things that concern me, Sam would have time for, or patience for. Not only did he have time and patience in the beginning when we were rehearsing, he had patience for them on the 17th hour of the sixth day. For me it was a very holistic experience; it was a real melding of my work life and my personal life. My film family and my real family." Make sure to check out what else Mila, Michelle, and Sam said at the Oz: The Great and Powerful Comic-Con panel — including what Michelle says about a Dawson's Creek reunion! Also, check out the just-released Oz: The Great and Powerful trailer.
Oz: The Great and Powerful is the latest film project to put a new spin on a childhood classic. Like Broadway musical Wicked, this take on The Wizard of Oz will be a prequel to Dorothy's experience down the yellow brick road, but this time it will be told from the perspective of the wizard himself. The 3D movie is set for a 2013 release, so even though that's a long ways away, I've put together a list of who's been cast so far so you'll know what you're in for.
Photo courtesy of Showtime
Following recent script woes, Sony has announced via press release that it's pulling the plug on Spider-Man 4. In its place, they're developing a fresh storyline that takes the webslinger back to high school. The film will reportedly focus "on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises" (wait, I thought that was the first Spider-Man?!).
The studio is eying a Summer 2012 date, but the other big change: it's bringing in a brand-new cast and production team for the reboot. That means that Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi are both saying goodbye.
This swap really irks me. To salvage Spider-Man 4's problems by recasting just seems like a desperate attempt at some blockbuster-sized money. Sure, the younger Spidey will give the franchise new life, but I think I would've rather seen it die — at least for several years until the memory of Maguire's version is long gone (heaven help us if they cast a less adept teen heartthrob for the role). Don't you agree? Or are you excited for a makeover of the beloved superhero?
