Sam Raimi's 'Oz' Is On

All hail Sam Raimi's Mighty Oz. And, no, "Mighty Oz" is not a euphemism. I'm referring to Oz: The Great and Powerful, Disney's Wizard of Oz prequel that Raimi began filming earlier this week.

That's right, the director who gave us Drag Me to Hell and The Evil Dead is now taking us over the rainbow. But from what I can tell, this new look at the Emerald City has little to do with the 1939 Judy Garland classic, but instead draws most of its inspiration from L. Frank Baum's beloved literary series. This makes sense since Baum's first Oz book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in 1900, fell into the public domain back in the 1950s, making its characters open territory for anyone that wants to use them.

According to Disney's press release, Oz: The Great and Powerful is a "fantastical adventure" that "imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum's beloved character, the Wizard of Oz." In this telling, young carney magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is transported from Kansas to the Land of Oz, where he intends to cash in by, I suppose, using his huckster ways to take advantage of all the simpletons he encounters in this "vibrant" otherworld.

But he hits a snag when he encounters three witches —Theodora, Witch of the West (Mila Kunis); Evanora, Witch of the East (Rachel Weisz); and Glinda, Witch of the North (Michelle Williams) — who don't believe Diggs is the great and powerful wizard he proclaims himself to be. Before it's over, battles are fought, lessons are learned and Diggs "transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well."

The film was scripted by a pair of writers who, at first glance, seem quite the odd couple. Oz: The Great and Powerful teams authors Mitchell Kapner (who wrote genre romps The Whole Nine Yards and Into the Blue 2: The Reef) and David Lindsay-Abaire (who won the Pulitzer for his dramatic play Rabbit Hole). I mean, that's a little weird, right? But on a movie like this, it makes a strange kind of sense — one guy to write the incredibly implausible, and the other to polish it up with a respectable cerebral sheen. Whatever the result, I can't wait to see what this crazy couple comes up with.

Raimi has assembled a first-rate technical staff, including cinematographer Peter Deming (Drag Me to Hell), Oscar-winning production designer Robert Stromberg (Avatar), Oscar-winning film editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker), Oscar-winning visual effects artist Scott Stokdyk (Spider-Man) and Oscar-winning special makeup artist Howard Berger (The Chronicles of Narnia). You have to admit, that's a lot of Oscars.

But all of that behind-the-scenes wizardry will bear no fruit if the team in front of the cameras doesn't deliver. And here again, I think Raimi has done pretty well, stocking his movie with a talented and eclectic cast.

As the titular Oz, conceptual prankster and professional student James Franco is an interesting, if not totally unexpected, choice. Well-acquainted with Raimi from his work in the Spider-Man flicks as Harry Osborn, Franco has forged a wide-ranging career playing roles as disparate as Allen Ginsberg in Howl to a recent bizarre meta-version of himself on soap opera General Hospital. I can't wait to see what Franco does with this role. Will the Wizard be instilled with a squinty-eyed stoner smile? Only time will tell.

Raimi's female stars are much more intriguing, I think. Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz are all extremely talented performers. Williams and Weisz have both done wonderful work in highly respected small films as well as big-budget event movies, proving they are comfortable in almost any environment. Kunis, of course, has gathered quite a bit of heat lately from her edgy Academy Award-nominated turn in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Coincidentally, she's also worked with Franco before. In the sadly mediocre comedy Date Night, Kunis and Franco essentially stole the film with their roles as a couple of ne'er-do-wells who totally screw up Tina Fey and Steve Carrell's night on the town (see clip below).

Raimi's taking the unusual step of shooting Oz: The Great and Powerful in America, rather than Canada or Eastern Europe, taking advantage of 200,000 square feet of brand-new studio space in Michigan, his childhood stomping grounds. As Dorothy Gale famously said in the original film, there's no place like home.

If you'd like to prepare for this flick by reading the source material, go ahead. Hell, you probably have enough time to finish all 14 of Baum's Oz books, because Oz: The Great and Powerful is not scheduled to hit screens until March 8, 2013. Make sure and mark your calendar. It should definitely be something to see.