Hey folks, Harry here... A couple years back at SXSW, I hosted an amazing talk with Harlan Ellison and met Harlan's friend Josh Olson. At that point, Josh was coming off the stunning work he'd done on HISTORY OF VIOLENCE with Cronenberg. Since then he's been working on 3 projects that we know little about, the most well known being called simply OZ. I just spoke with Josh on the phone and well... he had sent the below letter to Merrick, but was frustrated because the perception of this being based on the toy line and McFarlane's pitch was getting a tad on his nerves. When you read below you can see why, but here's the truth about this new, very interesting OZ project...
Hi, Merrick, This is Josh Olson, the writer of the Oz sequel for Warners that you referenced in your piece today. If you want to verify that it's really me, just tell Harry that I have fond memories of fantastic barbecue with him, his lovely wife, and his father in Austin last year, as well as Harlan Ellison and his wife, Susan. We were in town to promote the documentary about Harlan. I wanted to clear up some confusion and misinformation in the piece. You can feel free to post this, if you'd like: ------ Just to clarify - the Oz project I wrote wasn't "twisted" in any way. McFarlane's involvement with the project and the fact that his line of toys live up to that epithet has led to a lot of confusion in the last couple years. The pitch I sold to Warners was entirely my own, based on events in several of the Baum books, combined with a story of my own creation. The entire project began when McFarlane approached the producers with the idea of doing a new version of Oz. For various reasons, they chose not to go with his approach, however, and in a conversation with the producers, I told them I thought a sequel to Oz was a fascinating - if daunting - idea. I spun a few half-baked ideas in the meeting that they really liked, then went off to craft a pitch for a film, which we then took to Warners and sold. Mine is more of a sequel that was - or was at least intended to be - a return to the magical land of Oz that would work well for both fans of the MGM classic, and fans of Baum's amazing books. My nieces and nephew are always complaining that they aren't allowed to see Uncle Josh's work, and I wanted to do something the whole family could enjoy. If you want to think of it in terms of what's out there, I was going for a Harry Potter tonality. The last I heard, they were looking for writers to make it funnier, which is fine. You don't enter into a project like a sequel to The Wizard of Oz for a major studio believing you'll absolutely be the only writer on the project. But for the record, the project we sold Warners on was in no way based on the Twisted Land of Oz figures. There was no bondage Dorothy, and no gigantic Toto monster. I've never met Todd, never heard his take, and we had one brief telephone conversation after I sold the pitch in which no details of the project were discussed. To be honest, I don't even know if he's read my script. Oz was a labor of love for me - an attempt to give something back to a creator who had such a big impact on my childhood - as well as one hell of an intimidating job. If you can write "I think we're in Oz" for a character named Dorothy Gale, and not have at least a moment's rush of terror and shock at the size of the mountain you're climbing - not to mention your own hubris - you're lying. I'm proud of my work on Oz, and my experience working with Basil Iwanyk and everyone at Warners was nothing but exceptional. I look forward to the next one. Thanks for letting me clarify. Best, Josh Olson
