Hollywood prepares two! versions of the classic movie The Wizard of Oz

The Warner Bros. studio is preparing a new version of the classic The Wizard of Ozwhich will be directed by Kenya Barris, known for being the creator of the hit series black fish.

According to an exclusive scoop of the specialized portal Deadlinelater confirmed by the Hollywood press, Barris concluded an agreement last week for which he will also write the screenplay for this film, which “reimagines” the musical, immortalized in the history of cinema with the famous 1939 film starring Judy Garland.

At the moment, the details of the adaptation are unknown, aside from this will take as reference the homonymous book by Frank Baum, a novel published in the year 1900which has given birth to a multitude of shows on the big screen, on television and in theaters around the world.

Hollywood studios have long been trying to revamp classic history with projects that, in most cases, ended up being scrapped. Ten years ago, for example, Great and Powerful came out.

yet another movie

In fact, Warner Bros. is also preparing another adaptation, supervised by the production unit New Line, in which the producer of GuardiansNicole Kassell will act as director.

According to the magazine Varietythat project is still ongoing and is developing parallel to the new one, as Barris’s will be based on the original story and Kassell’s will give a “fresh” twist to the story of the protagonist, Dorothy.

The Wizard of Oz It is one of the most widely reproduced children’s books in the world. More than five films have come out under his title, another handful of films inspired by his plot, plays – such as the musical directed by Andrew Lloyd Webber – and even video games.

Of course, the most famous and influential adaptation is the one that Victor Fleming directed for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1939.

A pioneer in the use of technicolor, his film received six Oscar nominations and, over time, became a cult film that, according to the United States Library of Congress, is the most watched film in history.

Their copies are kept in the United States National Register and in the Unesco World Register. The Academy Museum of Hollywood in Los Angeles also dedicates an entire room to celebrating the impact of the film’s musical.

The big flop: the version with Michael Jackson

In 1978 a new version was released with the stellar performance of Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. It was called The Magician (The Wiz) and the action moved from Kansas to an African American neighborhood in New York.

The Motown label teamed up with Universal to make a high-budget musical that had already triumphed on the Broadway stages. After the rise of blaxploitation, it was a question of going further, of proposing a series A product that featured all the stars of the record company, with legendary actors such as Richard Pryor or Lena Horne, as well as Quincy Jones in music production.

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