Entertainment

Get Ready For a Lot of 'The Wizard of Oz'

Less than a month after CBS greenlit Wizard of Oz -inspired medical drama Dorothy, The Wrap is reporting that NBC has bought their own Wizard of Oz drama, which will be based on the original Oz books. This, coupled with the news that Syfy is working on their own Wizard of Oz miniseries, means—basically—I hope everyone likes Oz because it's going to be around for a long while. Sucks if ya don't!

To its credit, NBC's newly ordered series does sound like it's going to be the most interesting of the bunch: It's reportedly going to be based on L. Frank Baum's 14 original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz novels, which were pretty dark in that the Wicked Witch of the West is a homicidal maniac in them. Like, she actually goes as far as to send wolves to eat Dorothy, crows to peck her eyes out, and a swarm of bees to sting her to death. None of it works, of course, but geez! Calm down, Wicked Witch of the West, this isn't HBO.

Baum's novels were originally released between 1900 and 1920, and they, of course, were the inspiration for the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. As for NBC's upcoming series, it's being helmed by Siberia creator Matthew Arnold, who wrote and directed the pilot.

[Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]