Oz is set to start the blockbuster season off with a healthy $80ish million dollar debut this weekend (beginning as early as tonight at 8pm for some), and thus we discover that they already have a sequel in the works. Apparently Mr. Mitchell Kapner got the call to start on his second Oz script several months ago, this time to go it solo (he co-wrote Great And Powerful with David Lindsay-Abaire).

Disney has a right to be confident- aside from the strong opening weekend projections, the film is also backed by solid critical buzz, even if that’s mostly relative to the shit buffet that has been the first quarter of 2013 at the multiplexes. Still, the movie is fun, colorful, and not totally stupid, so audiences will likely eat it up. I enjoyed it, even if my thumb could only make it about halfway towards up. Raimi is having too much fun to ignore though, so even the most discerning film geek should feel no shame checking it out this weekend.

While it may seem to sequelize a prequel –especially when WB has the rights to the original Wizard of Oz and Disney can’t touch any non-book details from it, like Ruby Slippers– this first film actually goes out of its way to set-up any number of inbetweenquels, so I wouldn’t expect an outright re-adaptation of Baum’s original book just yet. Nothing’s for sure though, so we’ll see.

Source | Variety