After the success of Whip It!, it seems that Drew Barrymore is looking for more directorial assignments, and she may be setting her sights a bit bigger this time, with a wizard of Oz sequel. Pajiba (who can be a little hit and miss with their scoops, so don’t take this as gospel) has revealed that she’s interested in helming Surrender Dorothy, by screenwriter Zach Helm.
The film was first announced to the world in 2002 (and has been in development since 1999), and in the early days it was Barrymore who was going to star rather than direct. However that attempt never got off the ground. Now we’re in a post-Alice In Wonderland world and suddenly studios are falling over themselves to make Oz based projects. Universal is still attempting to adapt the hit musical Wicked, Disney has The Great and Powerful Oz with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star, while Warner already has two wizardy movies in development, and if the Surrender Dorothy news is correct, this would put a third on their slate.
The premise of Surrender Dorothy updated everything to the modern day, and says that when the Kansas maiden first went to Oz, while it appeared she’d killed the Wicked Witch, it was all an act. Now it’s years later, the Witch is still alice and pissed, escapes of Oz jail and in a bit of an Enchanted-style twist, heads for New York to find Dorothy and get the ruby slippers once and for all.
With so many Oz movie in development, there’s now way all of them can get to the screen, but it looks like Barrymore is going to try and see if she can get hers made.