Movie Preview: Sam Raimi’s Oz The Great And Powerful Trailer and Comic Con Panel Notes

I went to the Disney panel at San Diego Comic Con just a few short hours ago and one of the three movies previewed was Sam Raimi’s take on the stories of The Wizard of Oz, called Oz The Great and Powerful. Check out the trailer below then read my notes from the panel which was Hosted by AMC’s Talking Dead host Chris Hardwick and featured Raimi, Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams.

Sam Raimi spoke first about the movie saying it was not a prequel to the classic The Wizard of Oz, instead it’s based upon the books by L. Frank Baum. This means no slippers, no lion, scarecrow or tin man either. It follows a magician(James Franco) who is a not so good guy, he is in raimi’s words a “Lothario and a cat”, he boards a balloon and during a tornado gets swept to the magical land of Oz. Kunis plays Theodora who becomes the wicked witch, Kunis was candid about her character saying she is both “Naive and impressionable, she really believes in the wizard.” Williams is “the good witch” Glinda, she was funny when asked about the voice of her character, saying “Sam did not want me to do the same voice as the original, i really wanted to do it.” She did not reveal how her character will sound and only Kunis and Franco are actually heard speaking in the trailer. I was blown away by the trailer, it literally gave me chills. I think Sam Raimi could really get this one right and I am now More Excited then EVER for it.