“You always wonder if Great-granddad wasn’t somewhat influenced with Dorothy - instead of a male lead, here you have Dorothy,” Baum muses. Great-granddad had them silver.”Īt the same time, he does point to some potential political influences on the original books: His great-great-grandmother, Matilda Joslyn Gage, was a leading activist in the women’s suffrage movement, and he can see some of the principles she fought for reflected in Dorothy. The ruby shoes were changed in the script because they showed up better against the yellow brick road on the washed out Technicolor screens of those days. “One of the kids, when he was telling the story, asked ‘What is the name of this different land?’ He told it in different ways, and before he finally wrote it down, he said, ‘Its name is Oz.’ So little things like that dispel the notion. “Great-granddad used to tell these stories to the kids, in Chicago particularly, and the word ‘Oz’ came from the bottom file cabinet, ‘O-Z’ in his den,” Baum continues. Every once in a while, I might as well be really honest, once in a while somebody will put in a little bit of politics in Oz, and there’s none whatsoever. “I think Wicked is a great example of something that is so successful.

“I’d always love to see Oz continue in different ways,” he says. PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ While, again, he has no official legal rights to many of the characters, Baum has a generous spirit about sharing the legacy - as long as his great-grandfather’s intent remains intact. Dorothy of Oz was published by HarperCollins. Since 1989, Roger Baum has published 16 new books in the Oz canon, which actually surpasses the 14 originals that were pumped out as a haphazard franchise near the turn of the 20th century. Frank died in 1919, Roger was born in 1938 - but has become the inheritor of his literary legacy. Baum never knew his prolific great-grandfather - L. The female leads - Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz - are all witches Williams plays the iconic Glinda, who was first portrayed by an angelic Billie Burke.īaum has more than just family pride and nostalgia riding on Disney’s weekend release he’s also an Oz author himself, and has his own star-studded movie adaptation that will soon wrap up production, with Lea Michele providing the voice of Dorothy.ĭorothy of Oz is a $60 million 3D animated feature from Summertime Entertainment that is based on Roger’s first Wizard-related book. This film, directed by Sam Raimi, stars James Franco as a young and charming version of the old wizard seen in MGM’s 1939 original.

That particular stumbling block, though, is not as much of an obstacle for Disney, as its massive $200 million film is a prequel set long before Dorothy rode a tornado and a head injury to the yellow brick road. STORY: ‘Oz’s’ Journey: 3 Studio Chiefs, Multi-ethnic Munchkins, James Franco Scores $7 Million

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