Pontiac... The Emerald City
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 3:00PM Hey people! I'm popping in very briefly from Michigan as I vacation. How about this for my timing:No sooner did I arrive (Saturday) than James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz showed up to start shooting Oz, The Great and Powerful (Monday). Okay okay technically maybe they aren't all here yet -- I haven't seen the call sheets -- but production began at the new Raleigh Studios in Pontiac. The whole movie will be shot there in what used to be an old truck manufacturing plant or somesuch.
Pontiac is where we used to go to concerts as a kid... the ones that weren't in Detroit that is. Here's a handy map to show where we're all located. I'm only like an hour away from the stars.
[Note: Madonna is not in Oz The Great and Powerful but I include her on the map because every time I visit Michigan, I pretend she also just happens to be visiting, as we are (pretend) psychically bound!]
If I wasn't visiting family and friends. If I wasn't sane. If I wasn't poor. If I had all the time in the world. If I were a stalker. If I owned a paparazzi telephoto lensed camera... I would stake out the studios and share photos. Too many "if"s so I'll just keep on with the visiting.
If you haven't been following the film, it concerns the Wizard as a younger man (Franco) who is whisked away from Kansas to the magical land (people come and go so quickly there) where he attempts to establish his wizardly rep while dealing with Oz's many political problems and three doubtful witches: Theodora (Kunis) and Evanora (Weisz) who are sisters (West and East, don'cha know) and Glinda the Good (Williams). I'm actually most curious about what they'll do with Glinda. After so many gloomy indies and depressed characters, isn't this a major "against type" role for Michelle Williams? As you surmise it's a prequel to Dorothy's legendary trip and sounds as if bears at least a passing resemblance to Gregory Maguire's "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" albeit with the focus shifted away from the green skinned broom flying baddie and over to the man behind the curtain.
Glinda in 1920, 1939, 2003, and 2012
Maguire's rather R rated "Wicked" was adapted into a kid friendly behemoth musical in 2003. It's so popular that it's long since outgrossed most films in existence. That's not something you hear every day, huh, theater outgrossing the cinema? But with a billion dollars and counting, it's beyond huge. The original books by L. Frank Baum -- all dozenplus of them -- are in the public domain meaning that any writer who wants to can riff on the world and characters free of licensing fees and rights options. But this has been true since the late 1950s so the plethora of Oz pictures in the works, are obviously due to Wicked's popularity, and Wicked's popularity alone. In a weird twist of fate by the time Wicked gets to the screen (distant future? never? they've been dragging their heels for years) the public may be too exhausted by Oz to care.
But back to Oz the Great and Powerful. Remember when Franco & Kunis played those crazy marrieds in Date Night?
Reader Comments (5)
Hey Nathaniel, I'm from Michigan, too (born on the shores of Lake St. Claire!), although I ended up waaay south down here in Guadalajara, Mexico... crazy! I thought it was interesting you mentioning OZ beginning to film up there, since just a minute ago I came across ths tiny article about the great Judy. Thought you might like it!
http://www.filmlinc.com/blog/entry/judy-garland-in-her-own-words
Enjoy Michigan and have a great vacation!
Wow, I love the cast! (Aside from Franco, surprisingly...it's sad, I thought the opposite would happen, but his Oscar hosting made me a lot less fond of him). But I can see as the wizard I suppose.
I actually hadn't heard a lot about this film, so I'm excited about it.
You said you didn't like new adapations of The Wizard of Oz -- yet you love Wicked. You should see The Wiz -- Michael Jackson is awesome -- oh wait you don't like him either.
I'm glad you are able to vacation in Michigan. If I weren't on a budget too, I would offer to pick you come and take you to dinner, maybe do a little star stalking in Pontiac.
Well, I hope you're enjoying yourself with F&Fs.
A cyber wave from Ann Arbor!
Not to nit-pick, but Baum wrote 14 Oz books. Ruth Plumly Thompson picked up the series after his last book (Glinda of Oz) and her first book, The Royal Book of Oz, is sometimes credited to L. Frank Baum, but Thompson actually wrote it.
I'm excited about these new movies, though.