‘The Wizard of Oz’ Is Going A Horror Makeover at New Line!!!

New Line Cinema has acquired a pitch from Black List screenwriter Mike Van Waes for a horror movie set in the world of The Wizard of Oz. The project is in the early development stages, so details are scarce, but the plan is to tie into the universe created in L. Frank Baum‘s 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz about the intrepid dimension-hopping Dorothy and her teammates Lion, Tinman, and Scarecrow as they journey through Oz to see the Wonderful Wizard.

I can see how this would be cool and hugely appealing to a studio at the same time. It’s got that bonafide IP appeal and, in truth, there have always been shades of terror in Baum’s tales just beneath the wonder. Ask any kid who grew up watching Return to Oz. There’s no shortage of remakes and reimagining on Baum’s classic tale, so hopefully Waes has a singular vision to turn the lore into something new and frightening. Tarsem recently put his spin on Oz with the batshit bananas NBC series Emerald City to varying levels of success (the Dorothy/Scarecrow storyline was weak, but the larger world building was a blast). Then of course there are the musical reimagining The Wiz and Wicked, both of which are fantastic, as well as Sam Raimi‘s less successful Oz the Great and Powerful.

Was also sold his original live-action/hybrid sci-fi film Hammerspace to Warner Bros. on spec in 2015, as well as a book proposal called Peeves to Harper Collins. The news comes in the midst of recent horror success at New Line, the Warner Bros. sister studio that has recently carved out a place for studio horror with The Conjuring franchise (including spinoffs Annabelle and The Nun), Lights Out, and the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s It. Any time a studio makes horror a priority, I’m happy, so I can’t wait to see what Waes and New Line cook up.