EXCLUSIVE: watchmakers director Nicole Kassell was chosen to direct the adaptation of the American children’s film loved by L. Frank Baum by New Line The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Temple Hill partners Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are producing with Marc Platt. Isaac Klausner will be the executive producer.
Kassell won a DGA award for a drama series and an Emmy as executive producer for the success praised by HBO critics watchmakers adaptation. She was the visual architect for the limited series, directing three of its nine episodes, including the pilot. This is a high priority project for the studio and a great opportunity to make stars for Kassell.
His selection follows extensive director research by New Line to find a visionary filmmaker to rethink The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They liked what they saw in the way Kassell acted as a meticulous world builder in overseeing every step of the watchmakers production, defining the show’s striking visual tone without any forgotten detail and weaving visual clues from the comic book panels in the series as delicate Easter eggs for fans. Kassell also demonstrated the ability to adapt challenging materials, giving new life to the revered and notoriously difficult to adapt comic book.
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The project keeps Kassell in the WarnerMedia fold, after watchmakers and eps of the HBO series Westworld, The leftoversand Vinyl. Kassell also directed the pilot for TNT’s Claws and then leads the HBO pilot The baby. She also has the movie Silver Seas for Participant Media.
Kassell’s film debut began The lumberjack, which debuted in competition at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by Newmarket Films. He received a CACAE (Art House award) in the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and other festival awards and earned him a nomination for the Spirit Awards for Best First Feature.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900 and inspired 13 additional Oz books. It has long been a Hollywood fixture – the book is in the public domain – and has been the inspiration for several projects since the classic 1939 musical film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland. This film is in the Warner Bros library, which means that the new version of Baum’s children’s novel can be based on elements like ruby slippers, something that rival projects cannot do. The sketches of the previous script were written by Darren Lemke and the duo Neil Widener and Gavin James.
“I am incredibly honored to join Temple Hill and the New Line to bring this beloved classic to the screen,” said Kassell. “Although the 1939 musical is part of my DNA, I am happy and humble with the responsibility to rethink such a legendary story. The opportunity to examine the original themes – the search for courage, love, wisdom and home – seems more timely and urgent than ever. These are deeply iconic shoes to fill, and I look forward to dancing alongside these heroes of my childhood while paving a newly minted yellow brick road. “
Kassell is represented by WME and Management 360.