It has been almost 100 years since the legend of Oz was manifested into literature by author L. Frank Baum. Like any great mythology, Oz has been adapted in many ways, and “Oz the Great and Powerful” is the newest undertaking by director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man) and actor James Franco (PineappleExpress, 127 Hours).
Director Sam Raimi said he drew inspiration for his unique adaptation of Oz from L. Frank Baum’s first book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” and its illustrations by W.W. Denslow, as well as the well-known 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.”
“More than the visuals, what inspired me about ‘The Wizard of Oz’ movie was the characters sense of love that they had for each other,” Raimi said. “How friends come together. And that very soulful, sweet message at the end of the picture
when we learn from the wizard that all of us are complete – we have the things within us to make us complete if we only recognize it. And that gave me a great source of inspiration.”
Given that friendship is a theme Raimi found inspiration in for “Oz the Great and Powerful”, his casting of James Franco as the lead character seemed very fitting.
Franco played Harry Osburn in the Spider-Man trilogy, re-uniting with Raimi for “Oz”. Franco said when the two worked on “SpiderMan”, he was a supporting character, and ultimately Raimi identifies with his lead characters more closely.
“I got a little less love than Tobey Macguire on those films, just because of what my character was doing,” Franco said. “Now that I’m the protagonist in Oz, Sam is identifying with my character.”
Franco read Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” book series as a boy, and was immediately interested in the new film adaptation. Though “Oz the Great and Powerful” is a family-friendly movie different from any other in his repertoire, Franco felt he could embody Oz.
“I saw the role as something I could have a lot of fun with,” Franco said. “Oz is a comedic character within this fantastical world. I found that combination to be fairly unusual.”
Franco explained that his role as Oz is very different from one such as Dorothy, who happily navigates her way from Kansas to the yellow brickroad and beyond. Franco’s character is a “con-man, stumbling his way through Oz.”
“This character starts off as a flawed man,” Franco said. “He’s selfish, he’s a bit of a womanizer and he thinks that happiness will come from financial success and fame. It blinds him to the love of the people around him.”
For Oz, the movie is more than just a journey through a mystical land – it’s an evolution of a misguided man into a better one.
Like Franco, Raimi has a varied body of work – he has directed horror and action films, and “Oz” is his foray into the family-adven-
ture genre. But Raimi prefers not to look at his body of work in the traditional sense.
“I just am a filmmaker,” Raimi said. “I’m a storyteller; an entertainer. I don’t know where Oz the Great and Powerful fits in the body of work. I try to make it as entertaining as possible – put as much thrills and chills into the film as possible… all I can say is that I hope the audience enjoys it.”
Raimi and Franco are both more than entertainers. Franco, for example, is currently teaching a film course at University of Southern California and has attended several different schools in the past seven years.
“I got a little addicted to school,” Franco said. “Now I’m doing a lot more teaching than I am studying, and it’s a great new chapter in my life. I love teaching.”
Raimi was once a college student too, but left Michigan State University to pursue his passion directing films. He then began busing tables and legally soliciting investors for his first “cheesy horror film,” the cult classic “The Evil Dead” (1981).
“I wanted to become a film-maker, and [Evil Dead] was the movie I made,” Raimi said. “It wasn’t that Evil Dead helped me with my career – that was my call. I wanted to be come a feature filmmaker and that was the fruit of my labors.”
For aspiring filmmakers attending college, Raimi gave some advice: start directing now.
“Every day, you should be writing: a script or a scene,” Raimi said. “Every weekend you should be shooting a scene from the script you’ve been writing, on Sundays you should be cutting the thing, and on Mondays you should be showing it to a university audience. And they won’t like your damn little picture.”
** “Oz the Great and Powerful”
hits theaters March 8. **
