We Don't Need 'The Wizard of Oz' in 3D
Today in show business news: Warner Bros. is reworking a classic, Justin Theroux gets a big TV role, and a Game of Thrones actress lands on her feet.
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Warner Bros. has some hideous plans to re-release The Wizard of Oz in IMAX 3D, because no one appreciates the old stuff anymore, they want it all big and headache-inducing. Supposedly the studio is doing this to celebrate the movie's 75th anniversary, but really it's just so they can sell remastered Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D and DVD and Ultraviolet, whatever that is, copies of the movie. Look, businesses gotta make money, I get that, but couldn't they just release the movie as is, or clean it up a little bit, but keep it, y'know, not in 3D? Because 3D is frequently annoying and occasionally terrible. And we just had a garish 3D thing set in Oz! We don't need more. And we don't need The Wizard of Oz all gussied up. It's already gussied enough. It's good and wonderful as is. It's OK if some things stay the same. I know you don't really get money from things staying the same, but money isn't everything, is it? Oh, to a major movie studio it almost certainly is? Ah, I see. Oh well. We don't have to go see it if we don't want to, do we. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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Justin Theroux has been cast in the lead role in Damon Lindelof's HBO series adaptation of the post-apocalyptic novel The Leftovers. Basically the Rapture happens but some people don't get Raptured so they have to just kinda live on Earth and deal with it. Theroux's character is a police chief and family man who is just trying to keep on keeping on. The show is just a pilot, so it might never see the light of day, but I am certainly curious about it. And I of course await with dread and to be honest some excitement the day when it's announced that Angelina Jolie has decided to try her hand at series television and is taking a meeting with Damon Lindelof. It'll be the beginning of the end — fitting, I guess, for this show. [Deadline]
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Not wanting to spend her summer kicking around her mansion trying not to text R. Patz, Twilight actress Kristen Stewart has signed on to star in two movies that will film back-to-back this summer. The first is Camp X-Ray, about a young soldier who gets sent to guard Guantanamo Bay and winds up befriending an inmate. Sounds like an interesting role for her. And then there's Olivier Assayas's Sils Maria, playing the assistant of an actress (Juliette Binoche) who is obsessed with a younger actress (Chloe Moretz, ugh). So that might be more of a supporting role? It's unclear. Anyway, good for her. Good to be busy, to work work work. Much better than creaking around lonely, sun-drenched Los Angeles for the next three months. Nobody should be doing that. [Deadline]
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[GAME OF THRONES SPOILER ALERT. TREAD CAREFULLY.] Though she may be gone from Westeros, actress Michelle Fairley is not outta the biz. No, she's just been cast in a recurring role on the poorly lit USA network show (that's redundant, I know, they're all poorly lit) The Suits. She'll play "a British entrepreneur who runs a successful international oil company" on the legal drama, making her debut on July 16. So, good for her! I mean, from critically respected and epic Game of Thrones to the USA network's suits drama The Suits is sort of the wrong direction, but she'll be fine. She probably booked this before Sunday's episode went kablooey. I'm sure she's getting offers a-go-go right now. This The Suits thing is just to tide her over. Plus [ANOTHER SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS], she might not be done with Westeros for good. Just sayyyyying. You know what I mean. If you don't you should not have read this far and it's your fault. [Entertainment Weekly]
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WGN America, that weird superstation from Chicago, is getting into the original scripted series racket. They've ordered, straight to series, a show called Salem that's set in 17th century Massachusetts. Yup, it's about witches and apparently "dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth hiding behind the veil of this infamous period in American history." Oh it dares to uncover that supernatural truth? What, that there really were witches or the devil running amok in Salem? Huh. I know it was like like four thousand years ago or something, but that seems kinda disrespectful to the whole thing, doesn't it? "Oh, no, a bunch of people weren't murdered because of mass hysteria and fear, a terrible incident that nonetheless teaches us something about certain societal dangers. It's that they really were witches working for the devil! Cram it with walnuts, Arthur Miller." Sits kinda strange for me. And really, the only fictional thing about there being actual witches in Salem should be Hocus Pocus. Because it's based on an entirely true story. But, oh well. Good luck, WGN. You're gonna need it. [Deadline]
