Saturday, April 22, 2006

"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!

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