Welcome to Rumorville! Here you can learn about casting news that’s about to break in Hollywood. These speculations might be only rumors, but that doesn’t mean you can’t follow the trail all the way to the audition room.
“The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”
There’s no place like home at New Line Cinema. First reported by Deadline, a new “Wizard of Oz” adaptation is currently in the works at the studio, and “Watchman” director Nicole Kassell will helm. Described as an adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s book more so than a remake of the classic 1939 musical film, New Line promises the upcoming film will be a “fresh take” on Dorothy and the Land of Oz. While not the only adaptation of Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the 1939 MGM feature is the most well-known and lauded, usually regarded as one of the best films of all time, but New Line seems committed to the development of a new iteration. Previous screenplay drafts were written by Darren Lemke and screenwriting duo Neil Widener and Gavin James.
“Ma” Sequel
Ma is never far away, and neither is a sequel to a hit film. In a recent interview with EW, director Tate Taylor talked about how he’s toying with an early idea for a sequel to Universal Pictures’ “Ma.” Says Taylor, “I think it’s worth discussing [a sequel]. I know Octavia [Spencer] would do it, that’s why I purposely left her death ambiguous!” He goes on to describe his idea for the potential project: “My idea is that she’s moved to another town, and she has open houses in another city and kills people in the open house. I think she’d be a real estate agent in the Pacific Northwest and just murder white people looking at McMansions.” As of now, that’s as far as Taylor has gotten, and therefore, a sequel is still just in the idea phase. Spencer starred in and executive produced the thriller. Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee were the casting directors for the original film.
“The Overstory”
“Game of Thrones” creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have taken on another high-profile project to add to their Netflix development slate. The screenwriting duo will executive produce “The Overstory,” a series adaptation of Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The adaptation, now in development, will also be executive produced by Hugh Jackman. Powers’ novel is described as “a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of the natural world.” Benioff & Weiss will not write “The Overstory,” at least in the pilot stage; instead, Richard Robbins wrote the script. As previously mentioned, the work is part of Benioff and Weiss’s overall deal at Netflix which includes a series adaptation of the science-fiction trilogy “The Three-Body Problem,” as well as “The Chair,” a half-hour dramedy starring Sandra Oh. The latter is the furthest in its development, now in pre-production.
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