It isn’t surprising to see more remakes announced by Hollywood. This time, however, two very unique Hollywood classics in It’s A Wonderful Life and The Wizard of Oz appear to be receiving new remakes that will add a new “diverse” twist to their respective stories.
Filmmaker Kenya Barris confirmed that he has two projects in mind for such new interpretations. This was confirmed by Barris while speaking with Variety at the Sundance Film Festivals. He’s currently writing both scripts for the two “diverse” remakes.
Here’s what he shared regarding the first remake, which will be a new take on the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz:
“The original ‘Wizard of Oz’ took place during the Great Depression and it was about self-reliance and what people were going through,” Barris told the outlet.
“I think this is the perfect time to switch the characters and talk about what someone imagines their life could be,” he added. “It’s ultimately a hero’s journey, someone thinks something’s better than where they’re at, and they go and realize that where they’re at is where they should be.”
Filmmaker Kenya Barris is directing new “diverse” remakes of The Wizard Of Oz and It’s A Wonderful Life:
“I think this is a perfect time to sort of like switch off the characters…”
pic.twitter.com/tITN6HARD2— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 22, 2024
He added the following statement:
“I want people to be proud and happy about where they’re from,” Barris continued. “But I want the world to take a look at it and I hope that will come through.”
It’s worth noting that The Wizard of Oz, being based on a novel in the public domain, has already inspired countless other interpretations. One such adaptation also tried to capture the film’s events with a Black point-of-view – The Wiz. As such, it’ll be interesting to see how Bariss plans to do so with his own iteration.
As for his second project, he’s also working on a new adaptation of It’s A Wonderful Life with a similar point-of-view from a person of color:
“I feel like Christmas movies are amazing and I think the idea of taking something that has that long of a history and a tale behind it and putting an amazing piece of talent to tell that story,” Barris said.
“It’s a guy who’s trying to help out his community and things are going to turn around on him,” he added. “I think that’s the perfect story to tell for a person of color — Black or brown — to get into that because our communities have some issues and someone trying to help that community out. I think that’s the perfect vehicle to tell that story from.”
It’s worth noting that Bariss previously discussed his “Wizard of Oz” plans last year on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He revealed during the show that his version of Dorothy will be a girl that “lives in Inglewood, and someone comes up and she ends up in Underhood, which is right outside of Oz, and it takes place from there.”
“I wanted to make people think, but also make them feel good, and also make people feel seen who hadn’t felt seen.”
As such, we’ll have to see how these two new remakes from Kenya Barris turn out. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates as we have them.