I give this idea two thumbs up. I can see it now, The Wicked Witch of the West spreading biological contaminants on the poppy fields, Glinda the Good Witch of the North toting a pump action shotgun, and Dorothy "Don't call me Dot" Gale as a wise cracking, cigarette smoking, leather clad, ripped fishnet wearing badass. In thigh high red boots.

Why hasn't this been made before?

Meh. It's not precisely a "remake", is it - the Wizard of Oz wasn't an original screenplay.

well maybe not in the sense that Oz already existed in books and on stage, but I think it's fair to say that the 1939 film is the definitive Oz movie, and any new film based on the Wizard of Oz now would generally be regarded as a remake.

I just think it's another cheap trick in place of an original idea. They don't want to risk the budget on something new and unknown, so they're just going to ransack the past and regurgitate an old treasure in some kind of bastardised, mutilated form that matches up with a depressing industry assessment of the contemporary audience (drop the cute dog, arm the munchkins, model Dorothy on the latest Bratz doll, write in some kind of effects-laden battle scene). It's revolting, is what it is, and it'll make a bloody fortune.

You never know, it might be great.

Although remakes and rehashes are far too commonplace now. Maybe human creativity is limited? We've only had film for about a hundred years, and already we're running out of stuff to do.

My vote for the worst "remake" of all time - the American remake of The Wicker Man. That made me want to vomit popcorn and stomach acid on the bloke sitting next to me.

Even if people have run out of original ideas for films, which seems very unlikely, there are hundreds of books that could be make into films. Tim had a dream that he had written a brilliant film the other night, the plot was full of holes but maybe someone should make that!

I think it is horrific that they are remaking The Wizzard of Oz. I haven't read the books but i know the film is a mixture of several of the Oz stories so maybe they are making a film that would represent the books properly. However, the film of the Wizard of Oz is a classic and should be left alone. No one is going around remaking Casablanca or Gone With The Wind or It's A Wonderful Life as they are classic films that have survived generations of film lovers and are perfect in their own way. I don't want the Wizard of Oz to be tainted by some seedy remake with no compassion for the simplicity, innocence and childlike quality the film has. The story has dark elements already (those Monkeys anyone?!) I for one opose it as Tim knew i would!

See the problem there Mike is that you've paid the money to go see the American remake of The Wicker Man, thereby validating the commercial decision to make it in the first place. I bet whenever they consider doing anything like this, the financial people get a pie-chart out at the meeting and point to a certain percentage of punters who will definitely go and see whatever tawdry garbage they produce, just because it's a remake - and they're probably guaranteed to pay for the sequel too, even if they hated the first one....

I'm not against remakes entirely - there are some which undoubtedly improve on perhaps flawed or average originals... and others which have good arguments behind them. For instance, personally I'm looking forward to the new Dambusters film - although the original was good, it's badly dated (particularly the naming of a certain central dog character) and I can imagine that a new version could actually do a good job of bringing the semi-true story to a new audience... but in the case of something like the Wizard of Oz, it's such an iconic and enduring standard in film history, it just doesn't need to be re-dressed - if it's the land of Oz you want then there it is, there's your movie, enjoy it on the latest DVD re-master. If you want to make something different then make something different, but don't pretend it's got anything to do with the Wizard of Oz!

Oh, I didn't pay to see it per se. I used my season ticket. The only thing that film took was two hours of my life.

The original Wonderful Wizard of Oz story is an important piece with political underpinnings. As great as the technicolor 40s musical is, this was overlooked and made cute and childish. I doubt I'd go to the effort of seeing this myself, at least not at the cinema, but I have no objections to someone else having a crack at getting to the subtext a bit.

Incidentally, I studied The Wizard of Oz for one of my modules this last year. I had to compare it to Spirited Away, subtext-wise. Quite a boring premise considering the title of the degree is "digital visual effects", but I rather enjoyed it. Spirited Away, that is.

I'd love to think this idea has been inspired by some desire to explore a political subtext, but from what they've said so far it seems like it's a lot more to do with them looking for another bankable LOTR-style franchise, preferably with lots of action figures and an Xbox360 tie-in :barf:

Like the cartoon though

Looking forward to watching Sprited Away sometime as it happens, I saw the first ten minutes by accident and it really drew me in; we've got it on DVD recorded over Christmas and will definitely watch the rest soon...

I like D-mans idea of it.

But sadly it won't be like that and I'm livid!!

How dare they!?

Gah!

Spirited Away was a great movie. Im not much into the anime/cartoon scene, but I really enjoy all of Hayao Miyazaki's movies.

Back on topic, this movie is only going to make it is if they give it a 'grindhouse/pulp fiction' style to it and add Quentin Tarantino to the director's list.