Numerous film-makers have attempted to recapture the magic of the 1939 musical starring Judy Garland – can Watchmen director Nicole Kassell pull it off?
News comes this week that Nicole Kassell, award-winning director of the dazzling Watchmen TV show, is to oversee a remake of The Wizard of Oz, the classic 1939 musical starring Judy Garland, for New Line Cinema. Well, good luck with that.
Myriad film-makers have attempted to recapture the magic of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s pioneering movie, but none has really been successful. Sam Raimi is perhaps the most notable recent director to take on the challenge, with Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful, in 2013. Raimi is an accomplished director of brutally silly cult fantasy films, but his attempt to present a prequel featuring James Franco as the titular wizard lacked sparkle. The 1978 musical The Wiz was intended to capitalise on the popularity of Blaxploitation movies and featured a high-profile, all-black cast including Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Richard Pryor, with music by Luther Vandross and Quincy Jones. Yet it was a critical and commercial bomb, eventually helping to signal the downfall of the very subgenre it had hoped to propel to greater heights.
