According to an exclusive report from Deadline, Kenya Barris has been hired by Warner Bros. to develop and direct a new rendition of the classic fairy tale The Wizard of Oz. Filmmaker Sheila Walcott will serve as executive producer for Khalabo Ink Society.
No casting or production dates have been announced for the new Wizard of Oz movie, but it is said to be a modern re-imagining of the classic narrative many of us grew up with.
As filming gets underway, we should get more details about the project. Barris is well-known as the brains behind the hit comedy series Black-ish, from which Grown-ish and Mixed-ish spawned. Barris’ first feature film, You People, starring Eddie Murphy, will premiere on Netflix at some point this year. The new Wizard of Oz might be a thrilling and fresh take on the classic story, given that it was written by the mind behind one of the most cherished and long-lasting stories in film and literature. L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz first appeared in print in 1900, yet the story’s enduring popularity proves it has stood the test of time.
MGM’s The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland in 1939, is one of several iconic versions of the novel that have endured through the years because of its widespread success. The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson and based on the musical by William F. Brown, is another well-known adaptation of the story, while Oz: The Great and Powerful, released in theatres in 2013, is the most recent theatrical Oz film and serves as a prequel to the original story. In addition to Barris’s adaptation, Jon M. Chu’s Wicked Part 1 will debut in 2024 as yet another take on the Wizard of Oz saga (Crazy Rich Asians). First of a two-part film version of the musical by Stephen Schwartz, which was inspired by Gregory McGuire’s best-selling novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
The world went crazy for the Wicked narrative because it was told from the Wicked Witch of the West’s point of view. We anticipate publishing the continuation the following year.
Fans of the original tale have a lot to look forward to in a coming couple of years, as a number of new Oz films have been announced. Barris’s Wizard of Oz adaptation is currently in production, thus a release date has not been announced.