"Marvelous Land of Oz" finished & Oz movie rumors

Last Sunday Princess Ozma was restored and wrested the throne of the Emerald City from Jinjur and was crowned by Glinda (who else would be resonsible for such an honor?) ... as I finished the first draft of L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz.

The Marvelous Land of Oz is one of my favorite Oz books, which is why I wanted to start on a screenplay for it right away. I have made quite a few changes.

• Mombi admits that she tricked the Wizard into handing Ozma over to her.
• Jinjur is passed off as a good girl at heart, she can just get obsessed and confused over what she wants.
• Jinjur intends to turn Mombi over to Glinda after the Jellia Jamb=Mombi deception, so Mombi hides not only from Glinda, but also from Jinjur, so she turns herself into a rose.
• The ant transformation was left out of Mombi's series of transformations in her attempt to escape from Glinda.
• There is only one Wishing Pill, and it is found in a packet that was in with the Powder of Life.
• The whole bit about flying over the Munchkin Country was excised so we could hurry and get to Glinda.

There are also some additions I made. One of my favorites is Ozma saying to Jinjur after Captain Ruby and General Scarlet capture her, "The Emerald City has been ruled by men long enough."

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There is a new crop of rumors for a new OZ film to come to the cinema.

The most likely one to appear is a film version of the musical Wicked. Having heard quite a bit about it, it sounds like a great story and I'd really like to see it.

Disney is supposedly working on a prequel to The Wizard of Oz that sounds darker than Return to Oz. (Have they learned nothing?)

Steven Spielburg is rumored (note: he has had rumors about him in the past that were not true) to be working on a remake of The Wizard of Oz. As he also has the film rights to Wicked, that choice may be more likely.

There was also a rumor of a new Wizard of Oz movie coming out in 2008, but all I found were rumors on a message board. If any of these films are actually in production, it could be that they were actually seeing something about one of them.

A pitch that has been making rounds is called Above Kansas, a sequel to the MGM movie. (When will they ever learn that you can't really do a sequel to that one?)

So, like I have said, there seems to be great interest in an Oz movie. I just hope I can get some of my screenplays out there so we can finally have a talkie that presents Baum's Oz just the way it should be.