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American McGee To Adapt Oz As Movie 43

Posted by Zonk from the just-add-goth-cheshires-and-hilarity-will-ensue dept.
Ant writes "According to ShackNews and Hollywood Reporter, American McGee's "Oz" is back on track in several ways. Infogrames dropped the Wizard of Oz based videogame a while ago, but it's being revived now that McGee will be writing an Oz movie script for producer Jerry Bruckheimer. McGee said: "The hero of the story, a teenage boy named Arthur, is whisked away from Earth to an Oz in turmoil. Like Neo in 'The Matrix' films, the boy makes a hero's journey and comes to grips with his powers," he said. "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was simply brilliant, and since 'Oz' is similar in tone to that film franchise, I'd like to follow that model.""
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American McGee To Adapt Oz As Movie More

American McGee To Adapt Oz As Movie

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  • Translation (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Monday November 29, 2004 @10:01AM (#10942681) Journal
    "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was simply brilliant, and since 'Oz' is similar in tone to that film franchise, I'd like to follow that model."

    Babel Fish translation: "It made a crapload of money. Rather than go a different direction, which requires creativity, I'd like to copy it and make my own crapload of money."

    That Babelfish gets better and better with each passing year!

    • Re:Translation (Score:4, Funny)

      by th3walrus ( 191223 ) on Monday November 29, 2004 @10:09AM (#10942726)
      Wow, with a movie description that includes "it's like The Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean", how can you go wrong? Hell, why now throw some other stuff in there. It's Gone With The Wind meets Citizen Kane in space like Star Wars... and they all can do Matrix stuff. Crapfest coming up...

      On a more serious note, why does the Dorothy of this movie need "powers"? That's always been part of the draw to the Wizard of Oz. An innocent normal girl ends up in this strange land and has to make friends to surivive and find her way home. Give this character super powers and I don't see how it's going to be any good.

      American McGee = Overrated Trash
    • I actually have a rule for movie watching. If while seeing a preview, that preview says something along the lines of "If you liked "Movie X," you'll love this movie." I will not see that movie. Time and again I have found that those movies tend to be pretty bad (not the Michael Jackson, grab-myself-while-dancing kind of bad, but the really bad like Crocodile Dundee 2 kind of bad).

  • Not True To The Original (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 ) on Monday November 29, 2004 @10:08AM (#10942718)
    I've never heard of American McGee, but I used to read the Oz books to my students when I taught elementary school. After looking over the American McGee site, I can't see that it has any real, significant connection to the originals. For one thing, there's a reference to "the darker side of Oz" and Frank Baum made it clear there was no darker side. His intent was to create a land of wonder and amazement without the creatures that caused kids nightmares.

    I've never been able to stand it when movies or updates sanitized stories for mass consumption, and I find I'm feeling the same way about taknig something that was created with specific intent and twisting that intent into something opposite of it.

    So, after checking out the site, it looks to me like American McGee took someone else's creation and re-did it without a lot of what made the original special. It'd be kind of like taking the Terminator series and remaking it without evil robots. So am I missing something about American McGee, or is it the same kind of "ignore the original and remake in our way" stuff as what I just described?

    • For one thing, there's a reference to "the darker side of Oz"

      You should check out what he did to Alice in Wonderland.
      Pretty cool (in my opinion), but also much darker (and more violent) than the original Alice in Wonderland.
    • McGee did something similar with Alice in wonderland. He took a standard children's story, made it "darker" and then turned it into a video game. His adaptations are never really true to the original. Penny Arcade did a spoof [slashdot.org] of McGee's style involving Strawberry Shortcake.

    • Re:Not True To The Original (Score:5, Funny)

      by hal2814 ( 725639 ) on Monday November 29, 2004 @10:20AM (#10942805)
      "For one thing, there's a reference to "the darker side of Oz" and Frank Baum made it clear there was no darker side."

      Maybe he confused Frank Baum's Oz with the HBO prison show "Oz." That would explain it. I saw one episode where a guy moved cells because he was afraid of his cellmate, but he ended up in a cell where he had to be someone's girlfriend. That's definately a dark side.
    • You have obviously never heard of American McGee I'm afraid. American McGee is probably most famous around these parts for the "Alice" game [mobygames.com] causing a dispute between American Greetings and Penny Arcade [slashdot.org]. His take on Alice was .... interesting .... to say the least, touching much more on the insanity of the books that the Disney cartoon. I would say that his take on the Oz will be much closer to "Return to Oz" that "The Wizard..." - those flying monkey sstill give me nightmares...

    • Disney (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ian_Bailey ( 469273 )
      Disney has followed a simmilar pattern for its entire history.

      Either it was neutering the most frigtening parts of the stories (Snow White, Litte Mermaid, etc.), or just re-inventing a new story (Treasure Planet).

      I don't see anything wrong with it, as this is really the purpose of copyright expiration. New storytellers can re-imagine elements of old stories and mix them into something entirely new.

      This is different than taking something that's currently has copyright protection (see Lion King vs Kimba th

      • Re:Disney (Score:3, Insightful)

        by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 )
        I agree with the point about copyright expiration. I like seeing new works that can include old works (for example, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid"), but I think there's a limit. I guess I should point out that I'm a writer (I started my current business to finance a digital film production company so I could shoot my own scripts MY way instead of selling them and seeing them re-written 20 times). Maybe that's why I feel the original creation should be treated with respect. It's also why I don't like remake
        • It seems your argument is that reworking of prior art is okay as long as the end result is good.

          I'm sure you see the obvious flaw is that while it may be easy in hindsight to see what is bad and what isn't, those in the middle of the process may not be able to see this. Remember, the original Psycho is not yet in the public domain, so the remake was done with permission from the copyright holder. So while Hitchcock did not personally endorse the remake, whomever he decided would take over his estate did (p
          • It seems your argument is that reworking of prior art is okay as long as the end result is good.

            Not really. I'm just admitting that while I think it's a writer's job to come up with original material (yes, I know there are only a limited number of plots, but there are an unlimited number of character and character interaction possibilities), I still like "Forbidden Planet".

            So while Hitchcock did not personally endorse the remake, whomever he decided would take over his estate did (presumably a trusted
            • It's funny you mention Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare rather closely ripped off earlier (sometimes lost) sources, for virtually everything he wrote. He wasn't a very original writer. Just an exceptionally good one.

              Don't fetishize original works. They're on an equal footing with derivative works: most suck, and a few of each are really good.
    • For one thing, there's a reference to "the darker side of Oz" and Frank Baum made it clear there was no darker side. His intent was to create a land of wonder and amazement without the creatures that caused kids nightmares.

      Hmm...

      Bitchy old woman that wants to kill cute little dog, CHECK.

      Evil witch killed by falling house, CHECK.

      Grotesque flying monkeys that have been giving kids nightmares for decades, CHECK

      Evil witches that melt into a puddle of goo, CHECK.

      Yep, no dark side whatsoever!
      • Try reading the books. I never said anything about the movie (and I'm referring ONLY to the 1939 movie, with Judy Garland, not any of the others).

        Oh, and as a small point of trivia, when, in the movie, you see the Witch prepare to order the Flying Monkeys, notice that the monkey with her hands her a strange hat. That's a small reference to an important point in the book (that matters later in the book, but not in the movie). The monkeys were not grotesque and were not evil. Whoever had possession of th
        • True, but the books do have some quite dark elements.
          The Witch causing 2 people to injure themselves, over and over, but ends up creating 3 people (tin man, tin soldier, and the man made from the bits they lost).
          The glass cat was creepy.
          The implications of the powder of life and other magical items are frightning.
          That whole forest that likes to kill people.
          Those creatures with wheels for feet that liked to kill people.
          The dead land keeping OZ seperate from the rest of the world (kills you if you touch it).
          G
    • I'll be honest - I haven't read the Oz books, nor have I checked out McGee's site to read what he has planned about the movie. But it would seem - just from the presence of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East (if I'm remembering correctly) that there is room for some 'dark' or 'evil' in Oz, even if it gets banished eventually. I don't know the Oz lore to say how or where the witches came from (other than "Wicked," which I have a feeling does not fit with Baum's intent...although ma

  • I loved American McGee's Alice.
    It seems everybody else hated it, but I liked the scenery and the story. Playing it I felt really in a different world.
  • "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was simply brilliant

    WTF?! Okay, are the /. article submissions themselves becoming trolls nows? PotC was okay -- in the sense that it didn't completely suck -- but to say it as "simply brilliant" is just a joke.
    • Its a quote from McGee, not the submitter. And from Bruckheimer's view PotC was brilliant - at least in making money for Jerry Bruckheimer.

      McGee wants to feed at the same trough, it beats having to come up with original ideas that investors would have to take a chance on.

  • On the upside, (Score:3, Funny)

    by Canthros ( 5769 ) on Monday November 29, 2004 @10:25AM (#10942839)
    Frnak L. Baum's body, which is undoubtedly spinning in his grave, can probably be utilised to generate a not insignificant amount of power. It won't be clean power, admittedly, owing to the generation of reels and reels of garbage film, but it ought to rather cleaner than, say, coal.

  • HBO's Oz (Score:4, Funny)

    by {8_8} ( 31689 ) on Monday November 29, 2004 @10:27AM (#10942858) Journal
    For a split second, I thought McGee was going to adapt the HBO prison series Oz. I found myself wondering how he could possibly make beatings, stabbings and prison rape any darker than they already are.
    • Hmmm, adapting HBO's Oz might lead to some rather interesting gameplay possibilities. Just imagine it as an MMORPG wherein players all start off as inmates, etc... Of course PvP would be mandatory! As silly as this all sounds, that might actually attract a not insignificant market. If the social conservatives are complaining about the GTA series now, just imagine the fuss over Oz. I could see Rockstar doing a game like this.
  • When can we expect their adaptation of Strawberry Shortcake?

    I'd provide a link, but, well, you know... [penny-arcade.com]

    Seriously, though, the Unseen Comic pretty much describes my own opinion of American McGee by now, and somehow I doubt I'm alone judinging the department this came from.
    • > Seriously, though, the Unseen Comic pretty much describes my own opinion of American McGee by now, and somehow I doubt I'm alone judinging the department this came from.

      You say that like it's a bad thing...

      T
  • Are you guys sure this is not an april fools or something? I mean seriously , I dont know whats worst the fact that everything in this "film" has dollar signs written in them, that they are bastardizing to the point of ridiculous an incredible piece of literature or that Bruckheimmer actually thinks he can name the main character "Arthur" without anyone remember his late (2 actually) flops, and make american Mcgee (no less) to write 3 movies (3!) with a goddamned happy ending to tight it to the MGC classic(
  • Yeah, because you know the first thing that pops into mind when I think of Wizard of Oz is undead pirates and people saying "Whoah, I know kung-fu".

    Oh well, I'm looking forward to this as well as the darker Willy Wonka coming out. I wonder what other interesting classics could be made darker?

    I vote for Cinderella. Maybe they'll show how she REALLY won over the prince. Oh, and don't forget the product placement of Gucci glass slippers.

    Or maybe the Jungle Book. Wanna find out what REALLY happens when a bu

    • Well, I think Fox has already turned your treatment for The Jungle Book into at least one TV series...

      As for Cinderella, you might be interested in the Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister [barnesandnoble.com]. An absolutely smashing retelling of Cinderella from the viewpoint of the stepsisters. No product placement in this one.

      By the same author, and something I'm very surprised hasn't been mentioned so far, is Wicked [barnesandnoble.com], which isn't darker per se, but it is an outstanding novel, being in the main the life and times of the Wicked
  • (blink)

    The guy who turned Alice in Wonderland into a Quake-based action game is making a movie, based on the Wizard of Oz, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

    In other news, Satan announced in a press release that Hell will be closing up shop for an indefinite period. "With McGee and Bruckheimer on the case and hundreds of millions of Hollywood funding dollars behind them, how can we compete?"

    McGee said: "The hero of the story, a teenage boy named Arthur, is whisked away from Earth to an Oz in turmoil.
  • I, for one, would much prefer it if they could somehow get Todd McFarlane's Twisted Land of Oz [spawn.com] characters to come to the big screen. THAT I would go see. If you're going to make Oz dark, don't do it half way.

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