Could "Wicked" Go To The Big Screen?

In honor of good ol' Saint Patty's day, we are going green!

The massive success of films "Alice in Wonderland" and "Avatar" have inspired two companies to hop aboard the 3-D success band wagon and this time it could be none other than the classic "The Wizard of Oz"! Not a fan of the original film? Well you're in luck because ever since a decade ago it was considered sin to even think about remaking "Oz "in the same fashion as the 1939 film.

Obviously there have been knock off's such as "The Wiz" and "The Return of Oz", which both epically failed! No filmmakers have made a truly good onscreen version of the L. Frank Baum story since Judy Garland stared in the role of Dorothy. But alas! The cycle of bad remake "Oz" films could change since these "two companies" that are fighting to push for the big screen are Disney and Warner Brothers, and there is plenty of "Oz" to go around.

The LA Times have reported that Warner has been developing their Oz version with Temple Hill, producers of "Twilight", and screenwriters from "Shrek Forever After". This version of the script is a more comtemporary story about Dorothy's granddaughter who comes back to fight off evil in the land of "Oz". This has producer Basil Iwanyk from "Clash of the Titans" and Todd MacFarlane creator of "Spawn" lined up at its door. This revision of the tale could very well take the reigns over the "Harry Potter" movie franchise since the Potter series is about to end it's decade long run.

As for Disney, Joe Roth producer for "Alice In Wonderland" has been toying with developing "Brick", this feature would take the Wizard of Oz's point of view and explain how he came to "sit behind the Emerld City's magic curtain". It would be a re-boot of Baum's "Oz" storylines since the script will begin with "The Wizard as a con man in a traveling circus who goes on a similar adventure as Dorothy bizarrely ending up in Oz". Disney and Roth are already considering directors, so they are moving pretty quickly unlike WB.

This poses another issue, these rapidly growing ideas for "Oz" could kill any thoughts on broadway musical "Wicked" finding its way to the big screen. Especially since fans have been going crazy over the hit broadwar show for a whopping seven whole years! The top grossing musical since 2003 explains this twisted tale from the Wicked Witch of the West's perspective.

So why hasn't Hollywood been going bananas over making "Wicked" a blockbuster smash with its financial success? Actually,believe it or not, yet another major Motion Picture studio is curently working on it! That's right, Universal Pictures has been trying to get this film up and running for a while but producer Marc Platt keeps insisting that the process should take a "slow approach", so there is no time frame for its release.

If Disney and Warner Brothers get their respective versions of "Oz" on track before "Wicked", it would kill the chances of Universal green lighting their plans soon. Although, it could be possible to have two films in theaters at once and still manages to work out in the end. Some examples would be: "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact", "Dante's Peak" and "Volcano" and "Infamous" and "Capote".

So will three competing Oz revisions, will Wicked find it's way to into theaters soon? We'll just have to wait and find out!

Here's the trailer to the broadway musical, enjoy!