magician Oscar was taken to the country of Oz by a tornado, where the residents mistook him for the legendary savior, and was forced to be involved in the intrigue of three beautiful witches who dominated the country of Oz.
Oscar (James Franco James Franco) is a circus magician who only knows how to cut bugs, but he was accidentally brought to the magical and wonderful country of Oz by a tornado from dusty Kansas City. The residents there believed that he was the legendary great magician who descended from the sky and prayed for him to defeat the wicked evil witch to save the country of Oz, but Oscar, who had a bad heart, saw this situation as a great opportunity to make a fortune.
Three witches called Sedora (Mila Kunis), Enola (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams) who claim to be the guardians of Oz. Michelle Williams) has doubts about Oscar's identity. When the dark forces overwhelmed the realm and Oscar was forced to get involved in the dispute, he realized that he had to open his eyes to distinguish between the good and the evil of these beautiful witches, whether they were enemies or friends, otherwise all good things would be wiped out. Oscar decides to fight against the evil witch, but how can his magic tricks fight against the witch's powerful and evil magic? What is the future of Oz Wonderland?
A one-sentence commentary on the
film makes "Oz fans" fascinated, Mila Kunis presents a seductive and excellent performance, and director Sam Raimi has a consummate visionary technique. ——The behind-the-scenes production of
"Empire" from "The Wizard of Oz"
It's nothing new that Disney wants to make a movie tied to The Wizard of Oz. As early as 1937, after the success of the cartoon "Snow White", the then president of Disney, Roy Disney, was going to find L. Frank Baum to buy the copyright of "The Wizard of Oz" and shoot it into an animation. But the nanny told Disney that he had sold the rights to the novel to Goldwyn, who in turn sold the rights to Louis Mayer in 1938. The film project was then made into a household name musical film by MGM in 1939.
In 1954, Disney bought all of the 13 copies of the long-coveted "Oz" series of novels that had yet to be sold. Then he produced a lot of works about "Oz" in TV, Disneyland and other media. In 1985, Disney filmed the first film related to "Oz" in its history - "Back to Green" Wild, an unofficial sequel to 1939's The Wizard of Oz. Although the film performed poorly, it won many loyal fans in the following years.
Later, Disney entered its most prosperous era, and the story of "Oz" was brought out for re-discussion. But throughout the 1980s and 1990s, this kind of magical film was not favored, so Disney also hid the entire film project. After entering the new century, magic-themed movies are popular, and Disney is preparing to film this "Oz novel" into a live-action movie and put it on the screen at this time. Before Sam Raimi, both Sam Mendes and Adam Shankman were candidates for the film. After the arrival of Sam Raimi, the story of the film has basically been written, and he only needs to shoot the film according to the script. "I had never read any Frank Baum novels before," Remy said. "After taking over the job, I started to read him. Now, I must say, I've become a fan of his. At the beginning, I didn't dare to read the script for this movie because the movie "The Wizard of Oz" was too classic. But when I started reading the script, I couldn't put it down because it was so well written The characters come to life, the story doesn't have much connection to The Wizard of Oz, but it's just as exciting."
Create a magical scene
The most important and difficult thing to get right in a fantasy movie is the ratio of real to virtual. If it is too real, it can't be called "magic"; if there is too much magic, the temperament of the film will be far from Baum's original. Therefore, the biggest problem facing Remy is how to balance the relationship between the two. Sam Raimi said: "From what I read, there are a lot of magic, witch elements in this script. And these elements are not just taken from one book, but from the entire Baum novel. The elements selected in the sequence. For me, these things are still relatively new. Although I personally like magic and this kind of visual art, I still have no clue if I want to shoot these in a movie. .” And those magnificent and graceful scenes shown in the film were all completed in the studio. Raimi said: "These spectacles, all Robert Stombberg and his team have created, those things are real and imaginative. It's wonderful. Because he once gave Burton's "Alice in Dreams" has been art directed, so the two films are somewhat similar in feel. In fact, in my mind, I just want to make a film with the 1939 version of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Alice in Dreams" "The film that combined the feeling. In that sense, we succeeded."
Writing the music for the film was Danny Elfman, who worked with Sam Raimi on the first two Spider-Man films. But when filming "Spider-Man 2", there was a quarrel. Elfman also said he would never work with Remy again. However, the subject matter of "The Wizarding World" was too tempting, and Elfman was also good at writing music for such films, so he worked with Remy again. Speaking of music, Elfman said: "What we want to do is traditional, egoistic music. No effects, no synthesis, no electronics, just the most traditional music and the sound of each instrument. The theme song is still structured, emotional music, let it speak itself, and we don’t give it too much interference.” Elfman wrote the music for the film at an incredible speed, he only took 6 weeks to put it together. The music is finished. "The reason I write so fast is because it's in my nature," Elfman said. "I have an ability to tell a story with music, to put everything in music. And this movie just gave me that. Such an opportunity for expression."
Trivia
· The film starts out in non-widescreen, black and white, not 3D. When Frank came to OZ, the film became a widescreen, a color film, and 3D. It's all a nod to 1939's The Wizard of Oz.
· This is the second Oz-related film produced by Disney, the first being "Back to the Green" in 1985. But the film didn't elicit much response.
· At the beginning of the film Oz works in the Nanny Brothers Circus. This is an obvious tribute to L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz series of fairy tales.
· Las Vegas famous magician Russ Bolton came to the crew to guide James Franco magic. By the time the filming was complete, Frank had already performed several tricks proficiently.
The film was shot in Michigan, and most of the child actors in the film were found locally.
Christopher Waltz, John C. Reilly, Robert Downey Jr., Johnny Depp, Olivia Wilde, Amy Adams, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley and more Well-known actors were prepared to play different roles in the film, but later they were not able to play for various reasons.
Hilary Swank and Michelle Williams were the first actors Sam Raimi envisioned for Evanora. But Rachel Weisz got the script for the film through her agent and insisted on playing the role of Evanora. After two hours of talks, Sam Raimi offered her the role, and Williams played the other.
· Sam Raimi once promised to give the role of Glinda to Blake Lively, but she finally chose not to participate in the film, instead starring in Oliver Stone's "Barbarian".
Phillip Huber operates the puppets in the film. He also participated in the famous "Puppet Life".
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