First Chapter of WWOZ online for viewing

As of today, I uploaded my adaptation of the first chapter of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to my Oz site: EDIT - The PDF has been removed from the site. It no longer reflects how I want to do this adaptation. The adaptation I am doing will not be exposed to the public.

The PDF was created with a great bit of free software called "OpenOfficeOrg."

Feel free to comment on it.

And once again: if you want to see a new Oz movie on the big screen, sign my petition!

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/newoz

In the meantime, in L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz, the Sawhorse and Jack Pumpkinhead are about to run away from Tip, who shouted the wrong thing at the wrong time.

I watched a bootleg DVD of the Lost in Oz pilot yesterday. Watching that helps to warn me not to make Oz too dark...

"Dorothy: Viva La Simplicity!" & The MGM movie

Dorothy Gale is a very simple character in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She doesn't need to be placed under a microscope to find out why she does what she does. When she gets to Oz, all she wants is to go home to her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em so they won't worry about her. She has no other motives. This simplicity is why her character is so charming in the book. (In later books as she grew older, her character got a little more complicated, but not too much.)

In many film versions of Oz, this simplicity is lost, and, sadly, so is the charm of her character. (The MGM film did not lose it but simply enhanced it!) This is obviously a big strength of her character, and that is why I retained it in my screenplay for L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I hope that I can get this screenplay to someone who can make it into a major motion picture (with a chance for a sequel?) with the publicity that this is not to replace the MGM movie (it's a classic and there's no replacing it!) but to offer a cinematic version of Oz that is very close to Baum's original spirit and story. That is why I put "L. Frank Baum's" at the beginning of each title.

Please, if you're reading this, sign the petition! It only has three signatures so far (one of them mine) and that won't be enough to convince anyone! The link is http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/newoz. Please sign and give the link to all of your friends who like fantasy movies and Oz!

Sequel started

Well, I couldn't wait to start the sequel...

So I did!

L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz opens in Kansas, where Dorothy and Aunt Em talk about Oz. Aunt Em is a little skeptical, saying "I'm sure that cyclone took you somewhere, but are you sure that you didn't just have a dream?" Dorothy assures her that Oz is real, she has friends there, and then she wonders what is happening in Oz now. Moving up to the sky is used to transition the film from Kansas to the Gillikin Country of Oz.

I've also made this one more humorous than Wonderful Wizard. When Mombi tells Tip she intends to make him into a marble statue for her garden, he says "I hope they (the flowers) all wilt." Mombi responds with "I'll have no more of that talk! Especially when you become a statue!"

Keep you posted!

P.S. If you're reading this blog, please comment to let me know you're out there! I'll be more likely to keep you informed of my Adventure adapting the Oz series into films if I know someone's interested.

Screenplay finished

I've finished my screenplay. Oz was not easy to adapt without making it seem like the MGM movie. It feels like a very nice film already, and it's also kind of fast-paced. I'm thinking of, however, doing something to give the Wicked Witch of the West some more screen time as she is not introduced until the Wizard tells Dorothy & Co to kill her. (Just like the book.) I've started my petition (to send with my screenplay to show that there is an audience for a new Oz movie) and here is the link: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/newoz

I really like how this screenplay turned out just in it's first draft! I wish I could just send it to someone because I want to get started on the sequel: L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz!