Sci-Fi updates "Wizard of Oz"

from variety

A 'Wizard ' makeover

weberm...

You misspelled "ruined" in the subject.

Sci Fi to update 'Oz' with 'Tin Man'
By JOHN DEMPSEY

"The Wizard of Oz" is getting a makeover, morphing into "Tin Man," an
edgy science-fiction fantasy to be produced as a $19 million, six-hour
miniseries for the Sci Fi Channel.

"Our goal is to take 'Wizard of Oz' to the next level and make it

Goro...

Yes, b/c Gwad knows that the latter generations can't appreciate the
original Wizard of Oz...

Quiet Desperation...

They ought to do Philip Jose Farmer's "A Barnstormer In Oz". That was a
weird little book. It depicted Oz as a parallel Earth.

Steven L....

Hollywood did this at least once before, with a black ghetto movie
version called "The Wiz" in 1978. It was a flop. It co-starred Michael
Jackson (!!!) as the Scarecrow.

robxr4ti...

It'll be a darker version....

trotsky...

Are you trying to sound like Michael Richards?

relevant, modern and fresh to a new generation," said Dave Howe,
general manager of Sci Fi Channel. The producer is Robert Halmi's RHI
Entertainment, which produced a previous mini for Sci Fi, the 2004
"Legend of Earthsea."

markr1000...

If this is true, that last bit is all we need to know for forecasting
that this is going to be a disaster.

The writers of "Tin Man," Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle,
also will serve as co-exec producers with Robert Halmi Sr. and Robert
Halmi Jr.

RHI has begun the search for a director and a cast, with production
slated to begin in Vancouver early next year for a proposed air date
on Sci Fi of December 2007.

Sci Fi's license fee will cover less than half of the production
budget, so RHI gets the international rights to "Tin Man," with no
participation by Sci Fi's parent, NBC Universal. Sci Fi gets multirun,
multiyear exclusive rights to the mini in the U.S.

Using adjectives such as psychedelic, twisted and bizarre to describe
"Tin Man," Sci Fi said the mini turns Dorothy into a young woman named
DG, who finds herself plunged into a netherworld called the Outer
Zone. Other celebrated characters are reimagined in "Tin Man": the
cowardly lion as a wolverine-like creature without backbone, the
wicked witch as a sorceress called Azkadellia and the wizard as a
larger-than-life figure called the Mystic Man.

"Tin Man" continues Sci Fi's relationship with RHI, which will produce
10 original movies for the network in 2007.