Wicked forever: the enduring appeal of The Wizard Of Oz

Musical sequel Wicked: For Good, enchanting audiences across the world, arrives as the 1939 fantasy continues to dominate pop culture Most of the biggest streaming services are notoriously neglectful of any movie released before the 1990s (and in some cases, before the turn of the millennium). Even the big theatrical nostalgia screenings are starting to creep into the 21st century, as movies that, to the older among us, don’t seem ready for a multi-decade anniversary. (Did Batman Begins really just turn 20 ?! Is Mean Girls seriously old enough to drink ?) So it’s all the more impressive that one of the hottest properties of the past few years has been ... The Wizard of Oz , a movie far closer to its 100th anniversary than its 25th. Of course, The Wizard of Oz as (shudder) intellectual property dates well before the 1939 release of the beloved MGM musical. L Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at the turn of the previous century, in 1900. It spawned 13 increasingly eccentr...

Big swings, big misses and big deals: what happened at this year’s Sundance?

The 40th edition of the independent film festival saw some multimillion-dollar deals but also had attendees question if there was a drop in quality

The high bar raised by last year’s Sundance film festival had caused many to feel a little underwhelmed by this year’s edition, a commonly tweeted and spoken concern over just whether this year could truly boast a major breakout movie. Twelve months prior, the workplace thriller Fair Play, erotic drama Passages, nifty horror Talk to Me, romcom Rye Lane, timely documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, mother-son music tale Flora and Son and decade-spanning romance Past Lives caused waves that continued for the next year, an unusually robust lineup, fittingly given that it was Sundance’s big in-person comeback.

It was a slightly more muted affair over in Utah this year, some attributing a weaker lineup to 2023’s dual strikes, which prevented many productions from going ahead, but there were still enough gems amid the murk and a promising raft of major multimillion deals. Because while the strikes may have allegedly affected the roster, they also had a definite impact on the thirst of buyers, in frantic need of films to help repair lighter-than-usual release schedules. There might not have been anything as buzzy as Past Lives but this year’s crop of films continued to edge away from a reliance on A-listers to draw attention, a relief after a period of limp, star-led projects taking slots away from smaller, more deserving fare.

Continue reading...

from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/MzT3k7F
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Miracle Club review – Maggie Smith can’t save this rocky road trip to Lourdes

BREAKING: Interstellar back in cinemas due to public demand; Dune: Part Two to also re-release on March 14 in IMAX

EXCLUSIVE: Mona Singh gears up for an intense role in an upcoming web series; Deets inside!