While not as interactive as the epic Pac-Man Google logo, it’s still nice to see that The Wizard of Oz is important. For those of you that have been living under a rock for the past 71 years, The Wizard of Oz is a political allegory for the country going away from the gold standard. Or an adventure story about a girl that gets swept away to a magical far-away place with talking lions, flying monkeys, and poppy fields. Or a futuristic space epic. One of these statements is false.

Olson has been knee-deep in putting together the different take on the magical city. If your wondering who exactly he is, you could easily recall his script work in the Viggo Mortensen starring film A History of Violence or one of the awesome little stories within Batman: Gotham Knight. Now at this point your some what aware of what the writer is capable of, now we’ll dish out what Pajiba and First Showing found out on the plot.:

It’s a modern-day sequel. The story centers on Dorothy Neil, a bright and ambitious young lawyer for a prestigious law firm in Chicago. Neil is the grand-daughter of Dorothy Gale, who is now an old woman living in Kansas and telling her tales about her time in the land of Oz to a new generation of kids. However, trouble is afoot in Oz, as a new witch is destroying the magic that keeps the entire place running. While babysitting her boss’ kid, the kid and Dorothy Neil are brought back to Oz and united with the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow and tasked with killing an evil witch and restoring order in Oz.

This story line has been recycled a bit before, going from Hook to the twisted 2000 PC game called American McGee’s Alice, but without so much carnage. If put in the right hands this could end up being something neat to take part of when it comes to sitting in a theater and being part of the general audience. The concept is intriguing enough, now we just have to sit back, wait and see how the end result will look like.

With September 29th drawing ever closer, this just adds more fuel to the “I can’t wait” fire. Extra features, a new high-def remaster, and Judy Garland in 1080p with 5.1 lossless audio. If you’ll excuse me, I need to wipe the drool from my mouth.

Source: MoviesonTCM

And my personal favorite:

If you’ve never had the luck to see any of the Summer Under the Stars, TCM honors specific actors with an entire day dedicated to their careers. It kicks off with Henry Fonda in On Our Merry Way and the schedule continues:

• August 1 – Henry Fonda
• August 2 – James Mason
• August 3 – Marion Davies
• August 4 – James Coburn
• August 5 – Harold Lloyd
• August 6 – Judy Garland
• August 7 – Glenn Ford
• August 8 – Bette Davis
• August 9 – Cary Grant
• August 10 – Dirk Bogarde
• August 11 – Audrey Hepburn
• August 12 – Clark Gable
• August 13 – Gloria Grahame
• August 14 – Sidney Portier
• August 15 – Deborah Kerr
• August 16 – Elvis Presley
• August 17 – Jennifer Jones
• August 18 – John Wayne
• August 19 – Red Skelton
• August 20 – Miriam Hopkins
• August 21 – Gene Hackman
• August 22 – Sterling Hayden
• August 23 – Angela Lansbury
• August 24 – Fredric March
• August 25 – Merle Oberon
• August 26 – Yul Brynner
• August 27 – Ida Lupino
• August 28 – Frank Sinatra
• August 29 – Peter Sellers
• August 30 – Jean Arthur
• August 31 – Claire Bloom

Since there are some 300+ movies being played that month, the complete list detailing the movies was made available by TCM as a PDF. I’m pretty stoked for The Grapes of Wrath on the first, the non-Western John Wayne movies on the 18th,  and pretty much all of the 6th’s, 18th’s, and 28′s schedules. I am, however, a little upset that Marlon Brando, Gene Kelly, and a few others were left out. What movies or which actors are you cats (read: readers) looking forward to?

And for the record, black-and-white movies DO look better in high-def.

Source: CinemaBlend, TCM

It sounds like these technicolor wonders get the high-def treatment courtesy of IIRC, the guys that did the 4K scan for the DVD a few years back.

The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, is set for release September 29th, 2009, in a Collectors Edition with the MSRP of $84.99.

Gone with the Wind, with Clark Gable at the helm, is set for release later this November 30th with a MSRP of the same price. With the release so close to Christmas, I’m going to call it now, this is going to be a hard Blu to find.

Finally, at the bottom of the email, the release of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy sits, completely out of place. The MSRP is $99.98. Not to knock The Lord of the Rings, but in comparison, the Golden Era Classics of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz and then throwing The Lord of the Rings is almost depressing.

All of these gems are available at the official WBShop, or your favorite retailer.

Source: WBShop.com

The last bio that appeared on screen was the award winning Life with Judy Garland: Me and my Shadows.  The film premiered on television with actresses Judy Davis and Tammy Blanchard portraying the actress at different ages of her life, which resulted in both of the actresses wining Emmy awards for their performances.

Source: Variety