Boorman follows road to 'Wizard'

Director signs on to CG-animated pic

By JOHN HOPEWELL

John Boorman is attached to direct the $25 million, CG-animated pic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

The adaptation of L. Frank Baum's original novel will be Boorman's first toon pic.

Produced by Laurent Rodon and Claude Gorvsky at France's Films Actions and John Boorman's longtime associate Kieran Corrigan, and currently in pre-production, "Oz" is written by Boorman, Ron Mita and Jim McClain ("Robots"). It's skedded for a summer 2010 delivery.

The English-language adaptation maintains the tale's main characters and settings. Unlike the MGM classic, however, it's not a musical.

"Oz" comes as the $35 million Gallic 3-D French toon "A Monster in Paris" has suspended production, reportedly out of financing concerns.

"Oz" consolidates SND's push into animated feature financing. At AFM it is also selling $10 million CG feature "The Magic Roundabout: The Beginning," targeting kids ages 3-8.

Read the full article at:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117995323.html

Like this article? Variety.com has over 150,000 articles, 40,000 reviews and 10,000 pages of charts. Subscribe today!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend
or call (866) MY-VARIETY.
Can't commit? Sign up for a free trial!
http://www.variety.com/emailfriend