Robert Downey Jr. to Play Wizard Of Oz?

Robert Downey Jr. is reportedly set to team up with director Sam Mendes to bring the Wizard Of Oz back to life.

The original 1939 movie, starring Judy Garland, became a cinematic classic, while another film based on L. Frank Baum's books, Return To Oz, was released by Disney in 1985.

Now movie-makers are preparing to return to the Emerald City on the big screen in a new picture about the wonderful wizard, titled Oz The Great and Powerful.

The film will be a prequel to the Garland movie, based on Baum's work, and will tell the story of a young circus magician who ends up ruler of the magical country after crash-landing there in a hot air balloon.

Mendes, whose work on the next Bond film was put on hold indefinitely, is now in talks to direct the picture, while Downey Jr. has been lined up to play the wizard, according to Production Weekly.

The picture is one of a number of different Oz adaptations in the works, including a big screen version of hit stage musical Wicked, and Oz, which sees Dorothy's granddaughter sent to the Emerald City to "fight evil", according to the Los Angeles Times.

Why Liza Minnelli Can’t Watch “The Wizard of Oz”

If your mom was the star of one of the most beloved movies of all time, you’d probably want to watch that film from time to time.

Not Liza Minnelli.

Her mother, Judy Garland, is the star of The Wizard of Oz which is celebrating its 7oth anniversary this year and continues to enchant generation after generation of kids.

But Garland’s character of Dorothy and her friends Scarecrow, Tun Man and the Cowardly Lion have to fight off the Wicked Witch of the West and other horrors as they make the journey to Emerald City to seek the help of The Wizard of Oz.

“I just loved her so and for some reason ‘The Wizard of Oz’ bothers me when I see it,” Liza tells the Associated Press. “They do terrible things to her. … That’s ’cause it’s my mom.”