Victor Fleming’s Wizard of Oz (1939) featuring Judy Garland graced the silver screen and indeed, L. Frank Baum’s children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has inspired numerous other adaptations.
Oz is now coming to TV, but not in the way that you would expect. A gritty, more macabre Oz will be coming to the small screen early next year, IndieWire reports. The series, Emerald City, follows an older Dorothy Gale, played by Adria Arjona (True Detective), as she’s transported by tornado with a K9 police dog into Oz, where realms compete and violence and dark magic rear their ugly heads. The series co-stars Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket) as The Wizard, Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Dracula), Ana Ularu (Outbound), Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) and more.
Emerald City was created by Matthew Arnold, creator, director and exec producer of the first independently-produced network TV series, Siberia. Sources say NBC had originally brought on Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) as showrunner, but decided not to go forward as a result of creative differences between Friedman and the studio.
When life was breathed into the series again, David Schulner (Do No Harm) was brought on as showrunner. Tarsem Singh (Self/less) will direct all ten episodes of the first season with Shaun Cassidy (Cold Case) will executive producing the series.
The series trailer can be watched below.