Oh, hey, someone's finally making a TV series about the dark side of The Wizard Of Oz

By William Hughes  |  February 21, 2019 | 3:22am
Aux Features TV

Having failed to somehow learn the lessons of NBC’s landmark primetime drama Emerald City—the show that dared to ask “What if The Wizard Of Oz was nasty?”—Legendary TV announced tonight its own intent to bring L. Frank Baum’s world of whimsical wonders to the small screen. Per Variety, the new series is being written and produced by Ed Ricourt, screenwriter of Now You See Me, whose other credits include Wayward Pines, Jessica Jones, and Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone.

(Hey, while we’ve got you here, can we talk about Emerald City for a minute? It was kind of like the also-nasty book version of Wicked, except everything was extra-hardcore: The Cowardly Lion was a war criminal, the Wicked Witch was hooked on opium, and Dorothy ended up crucifying the Scarecrow. It was amazing, like a Nine Inch Nails cover of “The Wheels On The Bus.”.)

Legendary’s show presumably won’t be quite so aggressively vicious—we’d be surprised if they crucified anybody at all, really—but it does take place at a time when “the return of a long-exiled Witch brings fear, division, and war to Oz,” and promises to “examine stories and characters in Oz that haven’t been previously explored.” (Bring on the weird porcelain people who live in the south of the country, we say: Those little bastards are probably up to some shit.)

 
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