Wizard Of Oz getting remade by Robert Zemeckis?

Wizard Of Oz

Dorothy, Toto and friends could all be getting a 21st century make-over, if Warner Bros gets its way.

The studio have set up shop on a remake of the 1939 classic Wizard Of Oz , and have approached Back To The Future director Robert Zemeckis to direct the live-action update.

Bafflingly, though, the WB are so dead set on sticking true to the ’39 Oz that they’re planning on dusting off Noel Langley and co’s original script and shooting with that.

Which sounds like a disaster of Psycho ’98 proportions. And it’s all because the WB want to compete with Disney’s upcoming Sam Raimi directed The Great And Powerful Oz , if Deadline ’s spies are to be believed.

They won’t be the only ones, with Drew Barrymore also in line to helm Surrender Dorothy , which follows Dorothy’s great, great granddaughter and her visit to Oz.

Will Zemeckis and the WB push on with this nutso plan? Zemeckis is certainly busy, with his 3D Yellow Submarine movie due in 2012, and further commitments to direct live-action time-jumping film Timeless .

Let’s hope this all just turns out to be a really bad dream.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.