Sam Raimi will next year take us back to the wonderful world of Oz in a big budget tale exploring the origin story of The Wizard himself, real name Oscar Diggs, a shady magician who finds himself whisked away to the titular dimension in a hot air balloon. James Franco stars, with support from Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams as the three witches. Here’s the poster which has just made its debut…

Sure, we’d all rather see Raimi deliver another fun-filled DRAG ME TO HELL-style horror romp, but it’ll be interesting to see what he can come up with playing in the Disney sandbox. We don’t expect him to hold back on the freaky. Though he’ll have to work hard to top Disney’s criminally underrated RETURN TO OZ (1985)! Electric shock treatment, Princess Mombie’s decapitated head collection, the Wheelers, a cross-dressing Gnome King… terrifying.

OZ – THE GREAT AND POWERFUL hits cinemas March 8th.

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