Oz The Great and Powerful
Production Design
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films: Saturn Award for Best Production Design (Nominee) | Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Production Design (Nominee) | Satellite Award for Best Art Direction & Production Design (Nominee)
Oz the Great and Powerful is a 2013 American fantasy adventure film directed by Sam Raimi and written by David Lindsay-Abaire and Mitchell Kapner from a story by Kapner. The story takes place about 20-30 years before Dorothy's story. When shady circus magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is hurled away from Kansas into the wonderful land of Oz, he thinks that fame and fortune are his for the taking. However, three witches – Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams) – remain unconvinced that Oscar is the great wizard that the inhabitants of Oz need and expect. Reluctantly drawn into Oz's epic problems, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it's too late.
In place of the pixel-perfect photo realism pursued by most contemporary fantasy flicks, Robert hewed to a “heightened” storybook aesthetic by building two dozen sets on a humongous soundstage facility in Pontiac, Michigan.
“From day one, I pitched the notion that we remember this quality about The ‘Wizard of Oz’ because it was shot on soundstages with backdrops. It added a quality of light and sense of color that you could only do in a controlled environment. I did not want the production design to be real. It was an enormous undertaking. We must have had every carpenter and welder and plasterer in Michigan there.”
In this film I played the role of Disgruntled Kansas Man. Yes, that's me!