Legendary teaming with Now You See Me writer for Oz TV series
Variety reports that Legendary Entertainment is teaming with Ed Ricourt, one of the minds behind the original hit heist thriller Now You See Me, to develop a series based on the classic Land of Oz novels from L. Frank Baum.
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Set in the magical world and exploring characters not previously adapted for previous adaptations, Ricourt will write and produce the series, which will see the land of Oz erupt into chaos, fear and war when a long-exiled witch returns. A young servant girl may be Oz’s only hope to stop the witch, but may send her down the path to become the most dangerous and powerful woman in the land.
“I’m thrilled to partner with Legendary TV and dj2 to adapt my take on Baum’s rich, complex OZ book series which has influenced me creatively since childhood,” said Ricourt.
The untitled series is set to be executive produced by Dmitri M. Johnson and Stephan Bugaj for dj2 Entertainment and sources indicate Legendary is closing in on a director for the fantasy project.
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Ricourt, whose previous TV credits include the Marvel Netflix hit Jessica Jones and the M. Night Shyamalan-produced Fox series Wayward Pines, is most known for co-writing the first entry in the surprise hit heist franchise Now You See Me, which spawned two sequels, the first of which was released in 2016 and the second of which is still currently in development.
Legendary has been part of the backbone of numerous hit TV shows including the sci-fi actioner The Expanse and Netflix’s reboot of the classic sci-fi series Lost in Space, while dj2 is most notable for their work adapting video games for the big screen, including the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog film, which is set to hit theaters on November 8, the Donnie Yen-led adaptation of Sleeping Dogs, which is currently in pre-production, and a series adaptation of the 2018 horror game Vampyr.