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vovatThe failed pilot episode of Lost in Oz is up here. (It's actually in eight parts, and that's just the first one, but the others shouldn't be hard to find.) I remember hearing about the ideas for the show for years. I think Tim Burton was originally supposed to be at the helm, but that obviously didn't happen. I wonder what a Burtonian version of Oz would have looked like? I'm guessing it would include some big stripey things, and involve Johnny Depp in some way. {g} (Hmm, what Oz character would Johnny Depp be best suited to play? For some reason, I can sort of imagine him as the pre-tin Nick Chopper. And Burton might have enjoyed the Tin Woodman's somewhat gruesome origin story. But I digress.)
As an Oz fan, I have to say that I'm not too fond of ideas that throw some Oz references into a pot full of unrelated stuff, and then call it "Oz." Sure, spotting the references can be fun (as it was when I read Wicked and Son of a Witch), and maybe a series like Lost in Oz would have been worth watching just for that, but I guess I just think there's a lot of wasted potential when a project that could have done Oz right (or what I think of as right, anyway {g}) decides to go for something else instead. Not to mention that I always see press releases for Oz projects include quotes like, "We want the public to see that there's so much more to Oz than the MGM movie," and then they come up with a script chock full of references to and take-offs of MGM. I think that what it might actually boil down to is, "We found out that there are a whole bunch of public domain books that we can take ideas from without paying Time-Warner or our writers a single cent!" I do like that the design for Oz wasn't the tripped-out Technicolor tableau from the movie, but it was even less like the Oz of the books.
But even from a general perspective, I didn't think too much of the pilot. There were some good ideas, but too much of it was overdone, like the OMG!Sexual Tension between Alexandra and Caleb (who really doesn't strike me as talking like a World War II fighter pilot, but I might be willing to chalk that up to my own ignorance if others disagree), the grand speeches by the witches, and Selena's Goth poetry (although she might have been my favorite anyway, if only because she was so over-the-top as to be kind of amusing).
Okay, on to other matters.
Actually, that's not a bad resolution. I haven't flown a kite in ages.
And here's the latest Friday Five, two days late:
1) Are you related to anyone famous or do you have any famous friends? If so, who?
Not as far as I know.
2) Do you have any autographs or memorabilia?
Yeah, I've gotten autographs from Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Eric Shanower, Jian Ghomeshi, all four members of Da Vinci's Notebook, Frank Black, Erin McKeown, Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, David Lowery, Victor Krummenacher, Jonathan Segel, Johnny Hickman, both Johns from They Might Be Giants, Terry Pratchett, Corn Mo, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, Michael Showalter, Leo Allen, Eugene Mirman, Chris Anderson, Amy Miles, and Robin Goldwasser. Am I forgetting anyone?
3) If you could meet any 3 celebrities who would they be?
Andy Partridge, Kelly Hogan (whose autograph I DIDN'T manage to get when I saw her play with Neko and Carolyn), and...hmm, maybe John Hodgman, since a few other people on my list seem to have had positive experiences meeting him. (This would have been easier if I could have included dead and/or fictional celebrities.)
4) What would you want to be famous for doing?
I guess writing, although that would involve my actually having to do some of it, wouldn't it?
5) Who's the most annoying celebrity?
George W. Bush
Last night, I watched Jingle All the Way and Child's Play with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje. I thought the former might be so bad it was good, but no. It was so bad it was...bad. I did like how we were supposed to believe that Arnold was a normal suburban dad named Howard Langston, and not a weird, steroid-fueled Austrian. As for Child's Play, it wasn't great, but I can't really think of any obvious ways they could have made a better movie about a killer doll. Well, aside from having him kill Catherine Hicks. The fact that she survived the movie was a travesty. {g}
As an Oz fan, I have to say that I'm not too fond of ideas that throw some Oz references into a pot full of unrelated stuff, and then call it "Oz." Sure, spotting the references can be fun (as it was when I read Wicked and Son of a Witch), and maybe a series like Lost in Oz would have been worth watching just for that, but I guess I just think there's a lot of wasted potential when a project that could have done Oz right (or what I think of as right, anyway {g}) decides to go for something else instead. Not to mention that I always see press releases for Oz projects include quotes like, "We want the public to see that there's so much more to Oz than the MGM movie," and then they come up with a script chock full of references to and take-offs of MGM. I think that what it might actually boil down to is, "We found out that there are a whole bunch of public domain books that we can take ideas from without paying Time-Warner or our writers a single cent!" I do like that the design for Oz wasn't the tripped-out Technicolor tableau from the movie, but it was even less like the Oz of the books.
But even from a general perspective, I didn't think too much of the pilot. There were some good ideas, but too much of it was overdone, like the OMG!Sexual Tension between Alexandra and Caleb (who really doesn't strike me as talking like a World War II fighter pilot, but I might be willing to chalk that up to my own ignorance if others disagree), the grand speeches by the witches, and Selena's Goth poetry (although she might have been my favorite anyway, if only because she was so over-the-top as to be kind of amusing).
Okay, on to other matters.
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Actually, that's not a bad resolution. I haven't flown a kite in ages.
And here's the latest Friday Five, two days late:
1) Are you related to anyone famous or do you have any famous friends? If so, who?
Not as far as I know.
2) Do you have any autographs or memorabilia?
Yeah, I've gotten autographs from Rachel Cosgrove Payes, Eric Shanower, Jian Ghomeshi, all four members of Da Vinci's Notebook, Frank Black, Erin McKeown, Neko Case, Carolyn Mark, David Lowery, Victor Krummenacher, Jonathan Segel, Johnny Hickman, both Johns from They Might Be Giants, Terry Pratchett, Corn Mo, Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck, Michael Showalter, Leo Allen, Eugene Mirman, Chris Anderson, Amy Miles, and Robin Goldwasser. Am I forgetting anyone?
3) If you could meet any 3 celebrities who would they be?
Andy Partridge, Kelly Hogan (whose autograph I DIDN'T manage to get when I saw her play with Neko and Carolyn), and...hmm, maybe John Hodgman, since a few other people on my list seem to have had positive experiences meeting him. (This would have been easier if I could have included dead and/or fictional celebrities.)
4) What would you want to be famous for doing?
I guess writing, although that would involve my actually having to do some of it, wouldn't it?
5) Who's the most annoying celebrity?
George W. Bush
Last night, I watched Jingle All the Way and Child's Play with
bethje. I thought the former might be so bad it was good, but no. It was so bad it was...bad. I did like how we were supposed to believe that Arnold was a normal suburban dad named Howard Langston, and not a weird, steroid-fueled Austrian. As for Child's Play, it wasn't great, but I can't really think of any obvious ways they could have made a better movie about a killer doll. Well, aside from having him kill Catherine Hicks. The fact that she survived the movie was a travesty. {g}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-01 12:27 am (UTC)