Posterized: The Land of Oz

With Oz: The Great and Powerful hitting movie theaters today and having just remembered one of the all time greats The Wizard of Oz with the season premiere of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" I thought we'd honor the land of Oz, the now 113 year old creation of L Frank Baum with this week's edition of Posterized.

The Wizard of Oz (1939), Journey Back to Oz (1974), The Wiz (1978)

Under the Rainbow (1981), Return to Oz (1985), Wild at Heart (1990)

Wicked (stage musical, 2004), The Muppets Wizard of Oz (2005), Tin Man (miniseries, 2011)

I'm sure I'm missing some titles that spin heavily from the Oz myth but I came up with nine entertainments, preceding Oz: The Great and Powerful so let's discuss. (If you can think of more like Wild at Heart or Under the Rainbow that trade heavily on Oz imagery or history, without being 'Land of Oz' films, do share.) 

How many have you seen?

 I can't say that I've seen that many of these as I tend to avoid anything I fear might shamelessly rip off one of the greatest films of all time and thereby tarnish its memory. There will most certainly be more grave robbers coming now that Oz has beenin the public domain for awhile. But, my reservations about all new Oz product aside, I'm still dying to see a film version of "Wicked. I couldn't stop thinking of it all through the new picture. (It was like when they made that Les Miz movie in the 90s and it wasn't the musical. Why?)

Yes, No, Maybe So: "Oz, the Great and Powerful" (Plus "Wicked")

Technically we should resist going all Yes No Maybe So on teasers. When we have in the past everyone expected it all over again with the subsequent full trailer... and I can't do redundancy like that. I don't have it in me like all those heavy traffic movie blogs that will post at least five identical posts on everything "rumor. denial of rumor. updates of rumor. facts concerning rumor. rumor becoming fact." or slight variations thereof and a post for each and every minor iteration of a trailer and each batch of stills and each poster that appears for a grand total of about 250 posts about each film before the readers have even seen it. The studios know how to play the internet these days. But that's why we see too much of movies now before we even see them if you know what I mean. Nobody has any self control and we're all starting to ruin our virgin experiences with new movies. 

But I'm a Friend of Dorothy so I can't resist Oz. I'm whisked up in that tornado every time.

yes no maybe so breakdown if you click your mouse three times...

there's no place like blog. there's no place like blog.

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Worst News of New Movie Century? Brett Ratner for "Wicked"

I wish I could tell you that Brett Ratner's recent grab for the director's chair on Wicked (yes, the Wicked) was a perfect gotcha Halloween scare joke but it's actually true according to the New York Times. Ratner calls it his dream project.

Begone Brett Rattner, you have no power here!

But this quote actually upset me more.

I’ve always challenged myself, and whether I failed or not, I didn’t fail in my mind. I went through the experience, and it prepared me for the next time I’m going to do it.”

What many egotists fail to grasp when they attempt non-private things beyond their talents is that there are other people in the world besides them. Whether you fail out or not is an actual issue. It matters. If you fail you ruin other people's dreams. You ruin the dreams of the fans of Wicked. You ruin the dreams of fans of the movie musical genre itself, which is always under attack by lazy thinking, deep ignorance of its functionality and which needs a real Hollywood hero to champion it, not an egotist who'll just move on to the next thing once he fails (but not in his own mind!). Musicals, and this is true of all specialty genres, DESERVE artists who understand and respect their peculiarities and who can bring new inspiration. There's nothing in Brett Rattner's filmography -- at least that I've seen though perhaps his short segment in New York I Love You was amazing? -- that suggest he could handle the extremely complicated task of serving up Wicked's joyful grandiosity with a light touch (a line even the over-produced Broadway show trips on occasionally). How could Rattner, who has only directed very standard forgettable movies imbue it with colorful stylized beauty, and make it soar with girlish melodrama and sweetly corny comedy? 

What has he done to deserve this?

One would assume that if Brett Rattner does make it -- you can never trust these things until movies are actually filming and Movie|Line is right that his future projects list is ever-changing -- that he will be given the job because he could a) talk himself into it and b) his films have generally done well at the box office. But Wicked the musical on stage has already grossed more than all but a few dozen movies in the history of the cinema; it's its own bankability. The producers could completely change the fate of future musicals here by taking a risk (which would pay off) on a director with big vision, a unique skill set and, above all, musical comedy aptitude. Rattner's imagination is too earth-bound to defy gravity. His films don't dance. He even made a parade of bizarrely powered mutants feel as mundane as an everyday crowd queueing up for a sports event.

Get Link Soon

Being sick would be awesome if one didn't feel like crap whilst staying in bed all day watching movies,  reading blogs, playing iPhone games, and snuggling with the cat. 

IndieWire has an interesting chart of which Toronto People's Choice Winners scored big at the box office after the fest. Adjusted for inflation American Beauty (1999) is still the champ. Or Slumdog Millionaire (2008) without any fancy maths. But those People's Choice winners sure do have a good track record at winning Oscar attention.
Parade has an interview excerpts piece up about Brad Pitt. I don't want to get too sentimental about it but I consider it a huge blessing when very famous and very rich celebrities actually reveals themselves to be good souls, too. The things he has to say about religion and federal government and affordable housing and adoption and all of these things... they are so spot on. I really don't get the bad rap that charitable celebrities often get -- is it just self-loathing turned outward when people realize they wouldn't be even a tenth as altruistic if they were wealthy? Is it jealousy of good fortune? I don't know. But my point is Brad & Angie: love 'em. 
Just Jared Bizarre contest alert. Seems you can enter/audition to be a voice in the animated musical Dorothy of Oz starring Lea Michele (first photos of characters are also present). The closer all these Oz movies get to theaters (I keep losing track of how many there are), the more naive the producers of the celluloid transfer of Broadway's Wicked look. How on earth do you sit on that golden goose property (which has already outgrossed most of the biggest blockbuster films ever) long enough to let an animated film --they take forever!-- beat you to theaters and live off, profit from and burn out the renewed Wizard of Oz fever that you yourselves stoked? Sometimes the Hare and not the Tortoise wins.

Speaking of Brad Pitt, somewhere in this past week I missed the Oscar Fever rise of his candidacy for Moneyball. It would be so weird if the Best Actor race was all hunky across the board: DiCaprio, Gosling, Fassbender, Pitt, DuJardin, and Clooney? 

Awards Daily snapped photos of Julianne Moore and Ed Harris in a Game Change preview. Disturbing it was (I saw the same one) with Julianne being so spitting image of that one celebritician
Ultra Culture opens the PR package for The Change-Up. Big LOLS ensue.
Nicks Flick Picks starts his beloved "Fifties" column, i.e. best of the year thus far. As always his choices and writeups make you rethink the work... which is what great critics do.
Empire Colin Firth, whose career is still giant-sized post A Single King Man's Speech, will next star in The Railway Man, a POW drama. That is after Tinker Tailor. 
Towleroad my latest movie column in which I order people around. Go see Drive.
Stale Popcorn remembers the character actress Frances Bay (RIP) from The Golden Girls to Twin Peaks

October News and Request For Reader Input
When I was reading this article on Everything I Know...  in which Mr. Caggiano who teaches courses in musical theater history and the neuropsychology of music (?!?) asks his incoming students to name the best musical of all time, I remembered that next month marks the 50th anniversary of my personal favorite (WEST SIDE STORY). The film version of West Side Story, which first hit the big screen on October 18th, 1961 went on to become a huge hit and one of the biggest Oscar champs of all time (11 noms, 10 wins losing only its screenplay nomination as musicals tend to.). On the classic movies note, I wondered, for younger readers especially (and please do speak up if you have feelings about this), if I use too much of a shotgun approach when discussing old movies here? I sometimes suspect you have too many titles flying at you all the time to really decide what to get familiar with (like in those huge "all time" lists). So perhaps we should focus more going forward? Maybe we should try Classic of the Month style loose themes? It would be boring to talk about the same movie -- any movie -- for an entire month but perhaps a loose theme could include all sorts of detours that tie in but aren't too much of the same thing (Oscar competitions, influences, actor careers.

Sound off in the comments... I guess I'm interested to know if you liked the previous theme weeks like Aliens or the films of Tennessee Williams or Moulin Rouge! this summer or if you had to already know and love the movies to enjoy those?

and you can't link me down...

Nick's Flick Picks extensive thoughts on Jennifer Lawrence's (Winter's Bone) career to date.
IndieWire "a modest proposal" a chilling essay about how the new Justin Beiber movie is more of a time capsule for the here and now than The Social Network is.
Acidemic retraction. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World racks up more points.
Roger Ebert apparently if you guess ALL of the Oscar winners correctly, you can win 100,000 bucks courtesy of Ebert and MUBI. Though strangely the article has no link to an actual contest. Curious.
ABC News Elizabeth Taylor very ill in hospital. I can't deal when thinking about losing La Liz. I really can't. It'll be the end of a monumental Hollywood era. GET WELL SOON.
Movie|Line I knew that Andy Rooney 60 minutes King's Speech endorsement I mentioned earlier was going to spread online.
Vulture Channing Tatum on The Eagle and his bromance with Jamie Bell. Fun interview
Scott Feinberg on the recent new arguments that The Social Network can still win Best Picture

Finally, I saw this video at Critical Condition and wanted to share it since I know many of you reading are "Wicked" fans. An artist Heidi Gilbert storyboarded it imagining it as a movie. This was done in September I guess but if it's new to me, it's  new to some of you, too. And who can't use a bit of "Wicked" to brighten a Monday?

Defying Gravity Storyboards from Heidi Jo Gilbert on Vimeo.