Entertainment Affair took a journey down the yellow brick road to attend the press conference for the new Disney film Oz The Great and Powerful, directed by Sam Raimi. The film stars Oscar nominee James Franco as the titular Oscar Diggs; Oscar winner Rachel Weisz as the evil witch Evanora; Mila Kunis as the tormented young witch Theodora; and Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Glinda, the Good Witch.

Disney’s fantastical adventure imagines the origins of L. Frank Baum’s beloved wizard character. When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot—fame and fortune are his for the taking—that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting.

With Oz The Great and Powerful, director Sam Raimi tackled his biggest directorial project of his career. The movie demonstrates a lot of love for the original “Wizard of Oz”.  But at the one moment when it appears to be a musical, it gets shut down promptly.  “That was a tribute to the great “Wizard of Oz” picture.  But early on I think the writers decided that we shouldn’t imitate that fantastic musical.  There was no comparison to the great quality of music in the original, in fact.  Ours was based more on the Baum works,” Raimi said. 

Walt Disney originally wanted to make the “The Wizard of Oz” as an animated follow-up to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but the film rights were bought by Samuel Goldwyn who intended to produce a musical-comedy version of the book starring Eddie Cantor. However, Goldwyn ended up selling the rights to MGM. “I had learned that Walt Disney wanted to make an Oz picture only recently after we were done shooting, when the movie was almost finished,” Raimi said when asked about his knowledge of Disney’s desire to make the movie. “I hope that Walt would have liked the movie.  There’s no violence in the picture, so I think he would like that.  He’s got some classic Disney princesses and witches in the picture; I think he would like that.  And he’s got those…little bluebirds and cuddly creatures like the blue monkeys, so I think he might have liked it. Unless he hated it,” the director jokingly adds.

James Franco reunites with director Sam Raimi for their fourth project together after playing the role of Harry Osborn in the “Spider Man” trilogy. “I love Sam. He is one of the most fun directors to work with and that is no small thing. When you have someone like Sam, everybody is happy to be at work, everybody does their best,” he said. Franco enjoyed taking on the part of Oscar Diggs and exploring the origins of the wizard. An aspect he also enjoyed about playing the magician character was learning to perform some magic tricks. “Yeah, I got to learn with Lance Burton who is a great magician from Las Vegas. It was pretty fun. I got to learn quite a few pretty cool tricks that if I took them to parties, I probably would get a lot of attention.  But I need a lot of help from Lance to pull them off and he doesn’t travel around with me.”

Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis make for great witches. All three actresses played figures with different magical powers. When asked which they themselves would like to employ in their real lives, Williams immediately replied, "Flying!” “It’s really hard to beat flying as a skill. Number one. Number two-lightning bolts for me.” Weisz added. “I fly and I float,” says Kunis. Much of that flying and floating takes place on a broom, a key prop without which the witch wouldn’t be a witch.

Mila Kunis spent countless hours with stunt coordinator Scott Rogers, who reunited with Raimi after designing the rigs that allowed Tobey Maguire to soar as Spider-Man. Although the role was fun, Kunis found the high wire stunts a bit of a challenge. She confessed, “The worst thing about the wires is the amount of time you spend on them. Being on a wire isn’t hard, being flown 35 feet in the air isn’t hard, but being on a wire 17 hours into a workday is just a little painful.” The actress recently confirmed there is already a sequel in the works.

Oz The Great and Powerful promises to be a film that will delight all ages for many years to come. It is a wonderful ride that soars on the wings of imagination, immersing the audiences in a beautifully realized fantastical world populated by intriguing and relatable characters.

OZ THE GREAT & POWERFUL lands in theaters March 8