The Wizard of Outer Zone

I recently heard of this weird new version of The Wizard of Oz: the Sci-Fi Channel is going to produce a 6-hour mini serie Tin Man about a girl DG who’s thrust into the fantasy realm the Outer Zone (O.Z.). Zooey Deschanel has been cast as DG (from The HItchhikers Guide to the Universe and the sister of Emily Deschanel from Bones). I quote:

Tin Man is a psychedelic, often twisted and always outrageous take on the book. DG must discover her true identity, battle evil monkey-bats and fulfill her destiny. Her perilous journey begins on the fabled Old Road that leads to a wizard known as the Mystic Man.

The Mystic Man is ofcourse the equivalent to the Wizard of the original story and will be played by Richard Dreyfuss. Other characters are:

1. Glitch, an odd man missing half his brain (Scarecrow). Alan Cumming (Xmen 2) has been cast in this role.
2. Raw, a quietly powerful wolverine-like creature longing for inner courage (Lion).
3. Cain, a heroic former policeman (known in the O.Z. as a Tin Man, for his tin badge), who is seeking vengeance for his scarred heart (Tin Man).

I’m still not sure if I should look forward to this or not. Maybe if it was another network like HBO or even ABC I’d be more optimistic, but the SciFi Channel hasn’t exactly proven their ability in producing good fantasy series. Anybody remember Earth Sea? Terrible casting (Shawn Ashmore and Kristin Kreuk), horrible dialogues, awful acting, I can’t remember one good thing about that serie.

This casting, however, does seem very promising. I think it will depend a lot on the amount of money the SciFi channel is putting into it. I mean, Battlestar Galactica is extremely good. If they’re willing to put the same amount of time, effort and quality into Tin Man, it might turn out to be pretty great.