McFarlane's Twisted Land of Oz being setup at Warners?

Wizard of Oz movie was already in production but it seems that isn't the case, unless I heard it somewhere from someone I shouldn't have! Variety are reporting that comic book/movie writer/toy maker/baseball nut Todd McFarlane has struck a deal with Warner Brothers to bring the revisionist take of the Wizard of Oz to the big screen as promoted by L. Frank Baum's books. McFarlane pitched the idea to the studio which was further fleshed out by A History of Violence scribe Josh Olson... who is now in charge of writing the screenplay. McFarlane's idea of The Wizard Of Oz is much darker than the 1939 classic movie starring Judy Garland. His version is edgy with no signing munchkin's and some real Pan's Labyrinth style weirdness however the movie will still be shooting for a PG rating. They also have the opportunity to look through the 15 novels written by Baum (of which most are in the public domain) and McFarlane's own wacky Wizard of Oz toyline which includes these bizarre characters in what he dubs The Twisted Land of Oz...

Yes that is Dorothy and a Munckin below.

The Tin Man, looking a little like The Terminator.

Toto, apparently.

The movie they have setup at WB is said to be much tamer than McFarlane's dark vision of Oz that he made into this toyline back in 2003 however my bet would be it was closer to these incarnations than the one's in the original film. Although the comments from Olson to the trade hint that they wants nothing to do with these toys...

"I saw those toys, and Dorothy as some bondage queen isn€™t something I want to do...The appealing thing about the Baum books to me is how wildly imaginative they are. There are crazy characters from amazing places. I want this to be €˜Harry Potter€™ dark, not €˜Seven€™ dark."

McFarlane also pitched in with his two cents...

"My pitch was €˜How do we get people who went to €˜Lord of the Rings€™ to embrace this..I want to create (an interpretation) that has a 2007 wow factor. You€™ve still got Dorothy trapped in an odd place, but she€™s much closer to the Ripley from €˜Alien€™ than a helpless singing girl."

So there you go, The Wizard of Oz is being remade but I guess at least they are taking the material into a new direction. McFarlane's involvement in this is real interesting to me as we know what version of the characters he prefers and promoted with his toy line but of course that vision is going to creep people out and turn them off. Olson seems to have the right approach to go for something that's a little less radical but still dark and fresh. This is a real interesting one but it does seem to be in the early stages of development. Thoughts guys? Way too dark and it's still a remake in the end... should the material be left alone?