A Wizard of Oz Remake?

Ok, there are some things in this world that are sacred. I'm not talking about religion here, I'm talking about pop culture. There are some movies that should never be touched, remade, or tampered with. Remakes should be saved for movies that had a great premise but were poorly executed. Look at the Oceans Eleven series for example, it was based of a crappy Rat Pack movie and turned into something really enjoyable.

Some movies were ok at the time of release but either faded into obscurity or seriously need to be updated so that they can be better understood and related to by modern audiences. "Shop Around the Corner" became "You've Got Mail" and it was a tasteful well done remake.

Yet as I said earlier there are some movies that should never be remade or retouched. In 1998 Gus Van Sant had the audacity to remake the Hitchcock classic "Psycho." Even With Van Sant copying shot for shot what Hitchcock did, including some mistakes from the origional film, but it was not successful. The movie just didn't have the same feel to it. In this case adding color, a new cast, and including a few scenes originally ruled too racy by censors provided no improvement whatsoever. Other remakes like "Planet of The Apes" often to be far less successful then the films they were based off of.

And now we get to the point.

Someone is planning on making a remake of "The Wizard of Oz"

Yep you heard that correctly. The man who directed such films as Deliverance and Exorcist II wants to do a CGI remake of the classic. As you may have guessed he has not directed animated childrens films before. The script is being written up Ron Mita and Jim McClain, the same people who wrote the mildly successful preachy anti-corporate propaganda for tots film "Robots."

But you know what even if this remake was being done by the people at Pixar I'd still be upset. I defy anyone to name a movie as iconic and universally well loved as "The Wizard of Oz." This movie is like a priceless antique it has only gotten more valuable, well loved, and beautiful with age. No one should remake it! Especially if they are writing a version that is remotely true to the origional, and not a complete reimagining like what the Sci-fi channel did with "Tin Man"

Ok so these are early reports and nothing is set in stone. Lets hope the deal falls through before it's scheduled release in the summer of 2010.

I saw the origional report here.

http://wearemoviegeeks.com/2008/11/wizard-of-oz-cg-remake-coming-in-2010/