How wicked can Mila Kunis be? Well, I’m sure many men have fantasies about how wicked they’d like her to be, but it looks like she’s heading to Oz to play the Wicked Witch of the West in Sam Raimi’s Oz The Great And Powerful. The report from Vulture also suggests that James Franco, who was in early talks for the lead role earlier this month, is now fully onboard.
The movie is a prequel to the tale of Dorothy and her tornado aided trip to Oz, and will tell us how the wizard himself ended up in the magical land. He also gets caught up between four witches, who become the Good Witches of the North and South, and the Wicked Witches of the East and West. It’s the Western one, called Theodorah in the film, who’s the most famous (and most afraid of buckets of water), and that’s the part Kunis is up for.
At the moment neither Franco or Kunis’ involvement has been officially confirmed, but Vulture seems pretty certain.
The same Vulture also says Kunis was offered the role of revolutionary Kei in the Hughes Brother’s live action take on Akira, but Kunis prefers Oz instead. They also say that with Warner keen to get a huge star to anchor Akira, the studio recently offered the title role to Brad Pitt – who’d you’d would be a bit old to play a teenager, but presumably they’ve upped the age of the character from the manga inspiration. Thankfully though Pitt declined, but with Warner demanding an a-list star and none seemingly willing or available, the future of Akira is once more in doubt.