Disney, Warner Bros. do battle over 'Oz, the Great and Powerful'

In "Oz, the Great and Powerful," the 2013 Sam Raimi film that was shot last year at Pontiac's Raleigh Michigan Studios, James Franco stars in the first back story illuminating the Wizard's rise to rule the land of Oz.

[Don Abbott]

First it should be noted that in the original book Baum called the Wizard - Oz the Great and TERRIBLE!
Next I would like to state that in 1976 the International Wizard of Oz Club published a short story entitled: "How the Wizard Came to Oz, and What He Did There." The story tells how Oscar Diggs came to Oz from the circus, battled the two Wicked Witches with the aid of Glinda the Good Witch, and eventually became the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In 1991 a much larger version of this story appeared in book form with the simpler title of "How the Wizard Came to Oz." This is a book that has held a copyright by the author for 21 years. The artwork in the book was purposely made to look like that of the original artist of the first book - a true genius W.W.Denslow. But of particular note to the story above, in a couple of passages in the book the Wizard does refer to himself by saying: "I am the great and POWERFUL Wizard of Oz. Maybe if Disney had tried to incorporate this "How the Wizard Came to Oz" into their film - instead of pretending it didn't exist - they might have had a 21 year old copyright to better help them defend their claim on their movie title.

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