As Sam Raimi’s Oz The Great and Powerful prepares to hit theaters tomorrow, Variety is reporting that Walt Disney Pictures already has a sequel in the early planning stages. Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards) has been brought in to provide a screenplay.
Inspired by the rich literary world of L. Frank Baum, Oz The Great and Powerful serves as a prequel of sorts to the first of Baum’s 14 fantasy novels, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” That project was most famously adapted as Victor Fleming’s 1939’s musical The Wizard of Oz. There’s no word yet on whether or not this proposed sequel might re-adapt that story, although there are certainly elements in the new film that hint at that possibility.
Starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams, Zach Braff and Joey King, Oz The Great and Powerful follows Oscar Diggs (Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, who is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. He thinks he’s hit the jackpot — fame and fortune are his for the taking — that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Kunis), Evanora (Weisz) and Glinda (Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity–and even a bit of wizardry–Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
