Disney’s Oz the Great and Powerful hits theaters today and reports are in that a sequel is in the works and a writer has already been working on the script.
Disney apparently has a lot of faith in its latest film Oz the Great and Powerful, and while the film has received somewhat mixed reviews prior to its official release today, they’re expecting the film to bring in around $80 million this weekend domestically.
According to Variety, the studio has signed screenwriter Mitchell Kapner to write the sequel’s script, as he co-wrote the first film with David Lindsay-Abaire.
Warner Bros. owns the rights to the 1939 film and all of its creative and intellectual property, which prevents Disney from using any of said examples in the sequel, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t enough material left.
Disney has not officially released a statement concerning the decision to make a sequel of Oz the Great and Powerful, but we imagine if the box office numbers are favorable this weekend, we’ll start hearing some official word from the studio.
According to Variety, Disney approached Kapner “several months ago” to begin work on writing the sequel, as the studio was reportedly confident that a film with so many mega-stars like James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams would be enough to push the numbers into sequel range.
We’re somewhat surprised to hear that Disney is so confident even prior to the official release of the film, especially considering it’s currently sitting at a 53% on film review aggregate RottenTomatoes, but after Tim Burton’s similar styled film Alice in Wonderland went on to bring in $1 billion at the box office, the studio instantly hired Linda Woolverton to begin work on its sequel.
Be sure to check out Hypable’s review of Oz the Great and Powerful and let us know in the comments if you plan on seeing the film this weekend.