Some of the scariest moment in film have come not from horror movies, but from children’s films. Think about some of the events in the Harry Potter movies, where actual teenagers ended up going to war. The Child-Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang used the promise of candy to abduct children. Sid the toy torturer in Toy Story mutilated sentient creatures. And look at all the terrifying moment from Disney cartoons, from the children turning into donkeys in Pinocchio to everything Cruella DeVille did in 101 Dalmations to The Shadow Man being dragged to “the other side” in The Princess and the Frog. Some of the scariest of all movie moments are those involving The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Children’s stories have provided some of the best scares in movie history, largely due to their villains.
There have been numerous adaptions of the L. Frank Baum novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz over the years. It has been the source for television miniseries such as Tin Man and shows like the currently airing Emerald City, not to mention several characters have also appeared in the series Once Upon a Time. Broadway musicals such as The Wiz and Wicked have come from the Oz books. And numerous movies, including the recent Oz the Great and Powerful. Baum’s series of books about the magical world over the rainbow has been a never-ending source of material.
And now there is going to be a new film adaption. As reported by THR, New Line Cinema is working on a horror film based upon The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. As demonstrated certain aspects of the first film and the 1985 dark fantasy sequel Return to Oz, the story has the ability to be quite scary.
New Line Cinema, of course, has quite a bit of history with horror. In fact, its nickname is ‘The House that Freddy Built" due to A Nightmare on Elm Street saving the studio financially in the ’80s. Recently, the studio released the movies in The Conjuring series, including the upcoming film Annabelle 2. Later this year, New Line will also be releasing It, based on the novel by Stephen King.
At this time, it is unknown how much of the new film will follow the books or if it will draw from earlier filmed adaptions. It may be entirely original and simply set in the world of Oz. The movie was pitched by writer Mike Van Waes, who also has recently sold a script called Hammerspace to Warner Bros. and his novel Peeves has been picked up by Fox Animation.
Next: Emerald City Premiere: A Gorgeous But Ponderous Wizard of Oz Update
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Source: THR
