‘Oz: The Great And Powerful’ Gets Even More Character Posters
With just three months to go until Oz: The Great and Powerful debuts, Walt Disney Pictures has released four character posters for the upcoming fantasy.
The four posters feature titular star James Franco as Oscar Diggs, and Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis, and Michelle Williams as the three witches — Evanora, Theodora and Glinda.
Although the prequel is clearly part of L. Frank Baum’s original Oz universe, anyone expecting a nostalgic trip back to the yellow brick road, is in for a rude awakening.
Directed by fantasy/horror specialist, Sam Raimi (Evil Dead II, Darkman, Drag Me to Hell), Oz: The Great and Powerful digs deep into the origins of Baum’s beloved characters.
As noted by The Film Stage, the synopsis tells the story of Oscar Diggs (played by James Franco), a small-time circus magician and something of a chancer, who is transported from Kansas to the magical Oz.
Diggs thinks he’s landed on his feet until he meets the three witches, who see through his smoke and mirrors act. Eventually Diggs has to prove himself just to survive in a strange land — and along the way — he becomes the great and powerful Oz.
Raimi recently sat down with Total Film in a longer interview available here.
On his love for the original Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer classic, he said:
“I think The Wizard Of Oz is such a great film and I would never attempt to [remake that]. You could call [Oz] a prequel, that would be accurate, but I didn’t have to re-invent any of that fantastic history.”
On creating the prequel’s storyline, the director explained:
“Mitchell [Kapner, the screenwriter] took about 40 per cent of the events that were sprinkled here and there about Oz from Baum’s books and really created the other 60 per cent himself out of his imagination… I gave him notes, I brought aboard a second writer to help fill out some other areas of the story, my brother did a little work on the script, and all the actors contributed. It really was a very big collaboration.”
Oz: The Great and Powerful hit theaters on March 8. To see the four new posters click here.
