Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic(LOS ANGELES) — Nicole Kassell, who recently won an Emmy for producing HBO’s adaptation of Watchmen, is going to Oz. Deadline reports she will direct an adaptation of author Frank L. Baum’s 1900 classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The book has been adapted many times, most famously as the 1939 musical starring Judy Garland, which happens to be a favorite of the producer and director. An “exhilarated and humbled” Kassell said in a statement, “These are profoundly iconic shoes to fill, and I am eager to dance alongside these heroes of my childhood as we pave a newly minted yellow brick road.”
Kassell added, “The opportunity to examine the original themes — the quest for courage, love, wisdom and home — feels more timely and urgent than ever.”
Kassell has previously directed episodes of HBO series like Westworld, The Leftovers and Vinyl., as well as Claws for TNT, which is owned by the same parent company, WarnerMedia.
The trade notes that unlike other adaptations of The Wizard of Oz, this one, which is being produced for Warner Bros.’ New Line studio, has the rights to classic Oz elements that others didn’t, like Dorothy’s famously Smithsonian-enshrined ruby slippers, because the 1939 musical was produced by Warner Bros.
By Stephen Iervolino
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