An “OZ” Prequel, the “Two” Snow White’s, and “Candyland” the Movie, a Mr. E Sneak Peak

The Hollywood Reporter has said that Disney’s 3D ‘Wizard of Oz’ prequel, ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful,’ is set to hit the big screens on March 8, 2013.

In ‘Oz’, James Franco stars as a young circus magician whose hot air balloon is blown off course and lands in Oz where he’s mistaken for a real wizard. Mila Kunis is set to co-star as the Wicked Witch of the West, one of the three witches who control Oz. Rachel Weisz is to play another of the wicked witches, Evanora, and Michelle Williams is in negotiations to take on the role of Glinda the Good Witch.

Filming begins in late July in Michigan.

Universal Pictures has moved it’s ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’ from December 2012 to June 1, just three weeks before the previously established release of Relativity Media’s ‘The Brothers Grimm: Snow White.’

Not willing to just take on the chin, RM is countering back by moving their ‘ Snow White’ to March 16, 2012, now more than two months ahead of Universal’s rival fairy-tale.

There’s not much Universal can do to counteract this move because ‘Grimm’ is set to start shooting next month, while ‘Huntsman’ doesn’t begin until the end of summer.  Sources say the ‘Huntsman’ start date cannot be moved up because ‘Thor’ star Chris Hemsworth is currently filming Joss Whedon’s mega-movie ‘The Avengers’ and will not be free to begin work until later this year. ‘Huntsman’ also features Twilight’s Kristen Stewart as Snow White and Charlize Theron as the Evil Queen.

With Relativity’s ‘Grimm’ beating Universal’s ‘Huntsman’ out of the gate, Universal will now have to focus its marketing on the fact that its film is a darker take on the traditional ‘Snow White’ story while  ‘The Brothers Grimm: Snow White’ is a more family-friendly film.

Finally, at the ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ premiere, Jonathan Aibel, who co-wrote the sequel with Glenn Berger, chatted about plans to bring Cupcake Commons and the Chocolate Mountains to life in an epic fashion similar to that of a certain Oscar-winning Peter Jackson trilogy.

Aibel and Berger, the guys who are writing the upcoming ‘Candy Land’ movie, revealed that they have much more ambitious plans than just bright colors and catchy songs. “We envision it as ‘Lord of the Rings,’ but set in a world of candy.”

“We don’t see it as a movie based on a board game, although it has characters from that world and takes the idea of people finding themselves in a world that happens to be made entirely of candy where there are huge battles going on,” Berger says. “We are going for real comedy, real action and real emotions at stake.”

Are these guys chocolate covered nuts with gum drops for brains or will they laugh all the way to the candy coated bank?

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

SOURCE(S): MOVIEFONE.COM, IMDB.COM