Now that 2011 will officially be the year that a brand new genre strolls into town, we can look forward to hearing about all the shake-ups and changes that come along with that territory. The genre Im referring to is of course films that are set in or will contemporize stories from L. Frank Baums
Land of Oz. There are seriously at least six projects being considered or actually in production that concern all different tales about Oz and its inhabitants. Prequels, sequels, reboots, and remakes concerning Oz has Hollywood going insane lately as it seems every studio wants their own take on the fairy tale land to try and capitalize of the success of 2010s money printer disguised as a film, Alice In Wonderland. This is also not to mention all of the other classic fairy tales receiving the same treatment. It seems that within all of the talk of Oz and other fairy tales being brought to the big screen two names never fail to come up, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. And what do you know, this piece concerns the former.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that the film leading the pack in this race to become the next Alice In Wonderland,
Oz The Great and Powerful, has lost its huge star commitment. That comes in the form of one
Robert Downey Jr. who was up until now, scheduled to play the eventual Wizard Of Oz in a prequel explaining how he actually found his way to Oz. The film that is still to be directed by Sam Raimi is now trying to count its losses and go after an even bigger star in The Mad Hatter himself,
Johnny Depp. Disney is the one spearheading this Oz film and is now keen on having its go to guy for these sorts of films take RDJs place.
Depps name is a surprise here (not because hes above such things) because his schedule this year is quite full as he is to shoot
Dark Shadows with Tim Burton in April, finish his Keith Richards documentary, start production on
Gore Verbinskis Lone Ranger where he would play Tonto, and
more POTC looming. Dark Shadows is set up at Warner Bros. so that film will definitely film in April but the rest of the films here are all Disney films so one would assume this could all be worked out if it came to fruition that he was to play the famous wizard. Losing RDJ is a big loss for this film but if they get Depp then essentially nothing about this films prospects really changes as both names are money in the bank. I would rather see RDJ not do this film and maybe take on something more interesting and as for Depp I really dont care because its not like him taking this role jeopardizes anything I wanted to see him in to begin with. For me and many others Depp is lost right now in a sea of Disney and Tim Burton so this news comes as no surprise and is something that no one will really mourn over as the guy hasnt done anything interesting since 2004 aside from Public Enemies (well see how The Rum Diary turns out). Its really too bad that the three talents involved here arent doing better things. I wish this article concerned Raimi making another horror film and RDJ and Depp being cast in something like
Gravity and
Triple Frontier respectively but alas these are the cinematic times in which we live.
Is anyone else as disappointed as I am in these guys current career paths?