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More On That John Boorman WIZARD OF OZ Project!! Concept Art Online & More...
Merrick here...
An AICN reader took the time to call our attention to the ActionSynthese website; ActionSynthese being the company with whom John Boorman is currently working on a CGI adaptation of L. Frank Baum's THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (details HERE).
Even though Boorman's association with the project was just announced in yesterday's Variety, he's apparently been involved with the project for some time (per our reader's communication). Long enough to develop concept art like this...
... and post the following mission statement on ActionSynthese's site:
Based upon the original work by Franck L. Baum, The Wizard of Oz is a literary and cinematographic milestone which animated cinema must approach with respect. Why should we make an animated version of this story at all? Given the technical limitations of the day, and the demands of live action, the iconic MGM film could only engage with a fraction of the novel. Animation will allow up to explore the magical fantasy of the book and bring the array of strange and frightening creatures to life.
Therefore my objective in recreating the universe of the land of Oz is to realise the glories of Franck Baum’s novel. The Wizard of Oz is first and foremost a fairytale telling the story of a young girl who has lost her parents and lives in the countryside with her aunt and her uncle but dreams of another reality, of escape, of finding friends who will compensate for the loss of her parents.
Dorothy’s journey through the land of Oz relates a child’s coming of age, the transition from childhood to adulthood. Dorothy learns that she must put away childsish things, take responsibility, and become an adult. She is the only child in the land of Oz, and she has to understand that adults live in an ambiguous world in which the border between the good and the bad is often blurred.
In the original work, the handling of the female characters has been subjected to tremendous care. All the strong and powerful characters are women: Dorothy, the Witch, Glinda. Whereas males are deficient: the Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man, the Lion, the Scarecrow.
Nature also plays a key role in this magical world. It possesses a soul and is inhabited by mysterious forces. This nature isn’t tamed like ours, it belongs to the witches and the wizards. Nature is accordingly handled in the script as a genuine character.
Eventually, the harmony of the film will rest on the atmosphere, for which light is crucial. Today’s animated films generally tend to be over lit. These delightful and touching characters, Dorothy’s companions, represent aspects of the human condition. I will set them in a magical landscape that contains deep shadows and dark mysterious places which reminds us of the hazards we all face as we make our way through the world.
Such a setting will allow Dorothy to remain this unique character who has been through a century of literature and cinema history and is still able to seduce generations of viewers.
John Boorman
You can find this message, as well as several pieces of concept art from the project, by clicking the image below...
I notice there's a tag on the site indicating "View Teaser", but it's password restricted. (Merrick sniffles). Sure would be cool to get a look at that teaser. Very cool...
Huge thanks to the dude who took the time to send in the message.
Therefore my objective in recreating the universe of the land of Oz is to realise the glories of Franck Baum’s novel. The Wizard of Oz is first and foremost a fairytale telling the story of a young girl who has lost her parents and lives in the countryside with her aunt and her uncle but dreams of another reality, of escape, of finding friends who will compensate for the loss of her parents.
Dorothy’s journey through the land of Oz relates a child’s coming of age, the transition from childhood to adulthood. Dorothy learns that she must put away childsish things, take responsibility, and become an adult. She is the only child in the land of Oz, and she has to understand that adults live in an ambiguous world in which the border between the good and the bad is often blurred.
In the original work, the handling of the female characters has been subjected to tremendous care. All the strong and powerful characters are women: Dorothy, the Witch, Glinda. Whereas males are deficient: the Wizard of Oz, the Tin Man, the Lion, the Scarecrow.
Nature also plays a key role in this magical world. It possesses a soul and is inhabited by mysterious forces. This nature isn’t tamed like ours, it belongs to the witches and the wizards. Nature is accordingly handled in the script as a genuine character.
Eventually, the harmony of the film will rest on the atmosphere, for which light is crucial. Today’s animated films generally tend to be over lit. These delightful and touching characters, Dorothy’s companions, represent aspects of the human condition. I will set them in a magical landscape that contains deep shadows and dark mysterious places which reminds us of the hazards we all face as we make our way through the world.
Such a setting will allow Dorothy to remain this unique character who has been through a century of literature and cinema history and is still able to seduce generations of viewers.
John Boorman
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Wow... Never happened to me...
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Not quite what i expected...anyone else think she looks like Kathryn Erbe?*sp* from Oz, Law and Order CI, etc?
Still interested, though... -
I absolute love the original, but something about this feels true. And genuine. My interest is definitely piqued.
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If it's anything as good and as inspired as the seemingly passionate Boorman makes this retelling of Oz out to be, than we have a winner. I'm really glad he's giving much regard and respect to the first iconic movie version of Oz that continues to enrapture minds.
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Show me the witch and the flying monkeys... then we'll talk.
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I like the idea of a digitally animated retelling of Baum's novel, but I hope it doesn't come off too "childish". Wizard of Oz is great for kids, but I don't really consider it a "kid's movie". The book and the MGM musical have very different feels, but I've been far too socialized on the MGM musical to easily be enraptured by a newer, glossier retelling. Boorman's got his work cut out for him.
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in motion. Even with motion capture and the most sophistcated rigging system ever devised, CG humans look like reanimated corpses. It does look like they're trying to find that medium ground between photorealism and cartoon proportions, which means she'll probably just come off looking like a puppet. It looks interesting, though. I'll be looking forward to reading more about this.
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Nov 07, 2008 11:39:00 AM CST
Dear heavens, their other "production project:" involves...
by jackpumpkinhead
...that cocaine-addicted dog from that horrible English/French/whatever puppet show... yeuch.
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but i'm open to this new interpretation. nothing will ever take away the magic of the MGM version, so I'm happy to see other versions, especially if this new version isn't a musical which murders the original songs.
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They get better at this every year. Check modern video games, or watch Beowulf.
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Boorman lived in Ireland for years. Made his movies here. that was pre celtic tiger Ireland. then he made a tigers tale and his reaction to modern ireland was extra-ordinary. He hated all those panini eating, cappachino drinking suv driving folks. He liked the irish when they were poor and courteous and not vulgar. He his never coming back to ireland and the irish are glad to see the back of him.
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His interpretation of the King Arthur and Merlin mythos with "Excalibur" still resonates.
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why would you throw out the style of the classic art from the books?
this crap is so generic..jeezus -
Good.
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Boorman has missed a trick. CGI is a souless creation. Boorman should watch he Dark Crystal to show how to create a universe woth physical things.
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I read a few hundred of the thousand books in the Oz series when I was a kid. Those books were fucking absurd as if Baum was jamming on some Jamaican shit he smuggled from a holiday. but I enjoyed them. Garland's Wizard of Oz is in my top 5 films of all time but is different to the book. But the under-rated Return to Oz movie really captured the dark tones of the books and that Tik Tok fucking rocked. I look forward to John Boorman's take. And yeah, Shub-Wankalot, his Excalibur still fucking resonates.
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Super Burly Brawl with Dorothy and Co. versus the Wicked Witch and her flying monkey minions. With lots of guns!Awesome.
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will it sync to Darkside of the Moon?
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but wasted because that thing is lit like shit. Crying shame because it could have looked so much better. Why couldn't Ridley have shot it instead of Legend? I love Murch, he's a giant. But hooboy.
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One of my favourite films. In the meantime I will watch Wizard of Oz again...
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...reading for all film/CGI students. He's analyzed a novel better than anyone I've ever read about, and that includes Peter Jackson, or Zack Snyder. Boorman 'gets it' in a way I haven't read about in a long time. I can only compare this level of analysis to J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis.
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NOT cg. I don't mean that it should be the Burton style. But to get a visionary directory who will faithfully adapt the book, to play up the interesting, adult themes while keeping it a children's story. I actually thought the Peter Pan movie a few years ago was pretty good, something like that would work. But CG will just take all the life out of it. There's no reason you can't do a big budget, non-musical Wizard of Oz.
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beautiful, classic image with a hint of darkness to it. The animated image with the apple, however, looks like it could have come from any CG cheapie kid's flick. I think they ought to go with traditional hand-drawn animation if they're going to do it at all. CG animated humans have a terrible track record...
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Burton's Alice is a VERY loose sequel-like adaptation of the books, just to clear that. Secondly, I appreciate his effort to type out such a long analyzation, but envisioning it as a coming of age story where a little kids realises they have to grow up and require friends to replace the loss of their parents is so heavily cliched. What was inspirational about the MGM film was that it truly spoke to its generation as it was coming out of the big depression and it subconsciously symbolised the American Dream. Ah well. I agree with the talkbalker who said they should've gone for the look of the book illustrations.
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just would go up to my level...
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http://tinyurl.com/65c5ld
I think it looks interesting personally... -
The book was written over 100 years ago! Sure it may be all a cliche now, but that doesn't mean they should change the story. From what I gather the whole point of doing this is to keep true to the book, not completely change it like the Judy Garland film did.
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what's the point of remaking Oz unless you're going to go darker to match the books
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Animated Oz kinda scares me, but I trust the artistry of Mr. Boorman. Love most of his films.
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There are lots of children in Oz. She's just the only one from "our world". It's obvious that Boorman either hasn't read any of the Oz books past the first one or just isn't as big of an Oz fan as he appears. I know it's nerdy and nitpicky, but Baum's books are so rich and wonderful already. Why doesn't Hollywood make a faithful adaptation? As was mentioned before, RETURN TO OZ, for all of its faults, is the closest to a "true" representation of the Oz universe of any film ever made, including Baum's own. God love him, he was a fantastic author, but a terrible filmmaker.
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That is sooooo wrong. You are evil and I love it.
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Wheres the style. Looks like fucking, goddamn, it, looks like those fucking figurines all those old women collect. Humels???? Really I'd rather Live action too. I see these images and I can't help but wonder how much more could be given style wise to a live action adaption. And I'm not talking Gel Effect and MTV camera edits. Imagine a real wheat field with natural unpunched up low amber sun coming through them with Dorty and Toto hiding from the Witch...
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It would be a huge enough project for those guys to bring to the screen in a BIG way. This is going to come across as another half-telling for the new CG generation. Now this is happening we'll probably NEVER see a true live-action realization of Oz. Imagine Del Toro's take on it! Fucking hell I would LOVE that.
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hey, that IS a John Boorman original...we can expect more of the same!
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Seriously- John Boorman hire some new VFX people. That looks like something I could easily do with Poser at home...
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could be pretty erie/dark. i think its intreguing
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soon.
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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POINT BLANK, EXCALIBUR, THE EMERALD FOREST, ZARDOZ, HOPE AND GLORY, THE GENERAL, THE TAILOR OF PANAMA, HELL IN THE PACIFIC. Even interesting messes like WHERE THE HEART IS and EXORCIST II:THE HERETIC. He's a fine director of actors and has an eye the equal of anyone. He's like a slightly artier Ridley Scott, if that makes sense. I'm inclined to see how this pans out. Good luck to the man, and seeing as he's a 75 year old dude, it's heartening to see him still working, and not afraid to take on relatively new techniques and media. And OZ is such a strong story it needs both retelling for each generation, and reimagining in as many different ways as possible (though a Hensonesque version in the manner of DARK CRYSTAL would be a glorious thing indeed). And RETURN TO OZ - I love that movie. Part of the dark side of Disney material which surfaced early to mid 80s (WATCHER IN THE WOODS, BLACK CAULDRON and so on).
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Can't say I love the art direction, but it could be OK for kids if the storytelling is well done and not too manic or over-the-top dark. Regardless, the MGM musical will be the one they're still watching 50 years from now. That movie is golden.
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Between this and the new Terminator film, has ANYONE here seen or knows where I can see the new Star Trek trailer?
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Especially if this production imagery is indicative of the final product in any way.
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This new "art" fucking sucks!!! there's nothing "Oz" about it.My excitement level just went to 0.
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I think it looks bland. It looks like something for kids under 5, based on the art. And if I were a big studio head crazy enough to mess with the best movie ever made (which I would be unlikely to do!) I'd hire Guillermo del Toro and let it be dark. And live action. And woodsy. And dark.
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If John Boorman films his daughter getting raped again like he did in "Excalibur". I always thought that scene was hot UNTIL I found out it was his daughter. Now when I watch that scene I go eeeeeewwwwww.
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Nov 08, 2008 12:43:38 PM CST
Holy fuck based on five pieces of CONCEPT ART this will suck
by larry sellers
Let's pretend that children exist in modern times. Alright now let's also pretend that it's entirely possible for adults to be entertained by films aimed at children. Now, try to fathom a film that isn't dark, brooding, or directed by Guillermo del Toro, faithful to the spirit of the book (which is full of dated political allegory), and manages to be whimsical yet take itself seriously at the same time. It is possible, my friends. This movie will suck because this EARLY CONCEPT ART is a few stills of a meadow and field? Is that the yellow brick road? Hmm this is TOTALLY unfaithful. Quit insisting that everything be dark. You had your O.Z. sci-fi channel shitfest already. A "dark" Superman attracts hordes of fanboys shitting themselves but a dark, disturbing, live-action Oz nightmare doesn't bother anyone? That book was still bright and fanciful with a few dark elements here and there. The kind of dark that isn't really dark, but just "grown-up" compared to the rest of the book. The kind of dark that is appropriate for kids to be exposed to once in a while. NONE of the books are as pitch black as some of you guys hope it to be. What is this obsession with depressing, dark darkness?
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I agree - if you're going to remake a sacred cow (and it will be seen as a remake of the film rather than a new adaptation of the book), do it properly and justify its existence. Make it necessary. Put your ego aside. The thought of what Jackson could have been doing when he was wasting his time on King Kong, or Van Sant on Psycho, or Burton on Planet of the Apes ... just depressing.
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Any body else getting that weight-loss ad on the right column?
The women not only loses 12 lbs in 2 weeks, she turns from a black woman to a white woman. What would happen if a white woman started taking that stuff? Transparent skin? -
Nov 08, 2008 7:33:50 PM CST
Anyone interested in reading some "4400" fan fiction?
by leafar the lost
I say that because reading that would be more interesting than looking at concept art from a CGI "Wizard of Oz" movie from John Boorman. Unless an actual movie is done with John Carrey as the Scarecrow, then I am not interested.
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First, American McGee geek-teasing us, then that fucking TIN MAN shit, now this.
What the fuck is it with Hollywood never giving people what they want? -
That second painting, with the unnatural and unnerving sense of depth for the wheat field, gives me hope this might actually work. Open the Land of Oz up. Make it epic in size. Of course, people will end up comparing it to Narnia, but as a pure CGI flick it might be different enough to work.
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Here is a story. when henson showed The dark Crystal to the execs. there was utter silence and when he showed them labyrinth. they laef the room without saying a word. idiots. Henson was as we all know a visionary. And was lightyears ahead of dumb hollywood. ie animatronics. His death was a tragedy and left me bereft. Luckily others understood what henson was trying to achieve. and they will get it right. eventually.
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all those decades ago. Dorothy, the tin man and the lion are running through a dark wood. The evil witch casts a spell and all the trees come alive and try to trap dorothy and her friends. MGM thought that was too scary and axed the scene.
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And it's from the team who brought us CGised Magic roundabout complete witht he vocal talents of Kylee Minogue and Robbie Frickin Williams so i hold not a lot of hope!?
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