The next classic movie that’s getting a remake is The Wizard of Oz. It was previously revealed that Kenya Barris is writing and directing a new take on the classic story for Warner Bros., and in a new interview with Jimmy Fallon for The Tonight Show, the filmmaker opened up about the project. He explains how it came to be, revealing how he’d originally pursued a new take on The Wiz before running into a dead end. Barris notes that the upcoming movie adaptation of Wicked seems to have killed that plan.

While remaking The Wiz didn’t work out, Barris couldn’t get his mind out of Oz. He says Jones went on to work on other projects, but he met up with then-Warner Bros. head Toby Emmerich about taking on The Wizard of Oz with a reimagining of the film. That movie just so happens to be Emmerich’s favorite film, and the project was greenlit after he was sold by the pitch Barris had in mind. Specifically, Barris wanted to update the storyline and its characters to better reflect how things have since changed, though he wants to similarly turn a mirror on today’s society in the way the original film did back in 1939.

“It’s a big deal. Me and Rashida Jones, who’s my sister, we wanted to do The Wiz. You know, her dad did the music for it, and we thought it would be great. We went to the studio who owns The Wiz, and I love the people, but they were kind of hedging, and then we realized they were never going to let us do it because they had Wicked coming out, and they had invested so much money in Wicked.”

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“I gave him my pitch of, I think The Wizard of Oz, back in the day, it turned a mirror - it was like the Dust Bowl, Great Depression era - and it turned a mirror on society. That’s what it was about. It was talking about self-reliance and things like that. I think that this is the best time to turn a mirror on society because we need to see ourselves, and I want to do it with diverse characters. I really want to sort of, you know, the character lives in Inglewood, and someone comes up and she ends up in Underhood, which is right outside of Oz, and it takes place from there.”

Kenya Barris Is Writing the Film Alongside the Music’s Creation

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Barris also explained how he’s been writing the film working alongside musicians putting the music together. He explains that The Wizard of Oz is a movie that literally tells you what’s happening through song, and it seems like that’s something he wants to carry over with the remake. The goal is to obviously make people entertained when watching the film, as well as having more underrepresented groups feel seen with a more diverse cast in comparison to the 1939 movie.

A release date hasn’t yet been set for the new Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile, Barris fans can check out his new comedy, You People, which stars Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy. It is currently playing in select theaters and will drop on Netfilx on Jan. 27, 2023.

“I wanted to make people think, but also make them feel good, and also make people feel seen who hadn’t felt seen.”