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‘Wizard of Oz’ creator L. Frank Baum to be subject of biopic

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The wizard behind “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” will soon be getting his own movie. Author L. Frank Baum, who created Dorothy Gale, the Cowardly Lion and the Wicked Witch of the West, is the subject of a script that’s just been picked up by New Line Cinema.

The film will focus on Baum’s early years. The author was given to daydreaming as a child, and pursued several careers before finding success with his “Oz” books: he bred poultry, owned an import store and worked as a traveling salesman.

Baum was also a controversial figure. He was an early advocate of feminism and women’s suffrage, perhaps because of the influence of his mother-in-law, Matilda Gage, an early feminist historian. “Gage certainly encouraged her son-in-law to publish the stories he told his children,” writes Michelle Dean, although Gage died before the first “Oz” book was released.

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The biopic, tentative titled “Road to Oz,” was scripted by Josh Golden. The Hollywood Reporter notes that Golden’s screenplay is a finalist for the 2014 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.

It remains to be seen whether Golden’s screenplay will address Baum’s feminism, or his deeply disturbing views on Native Americans. In the 1890s, Baum called for the “total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.... better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are.”

“Road to Oz” will be produced by Beau Flynn, who has previously worked on such movies as “The House of Yes,” “Requiem for a Dream,” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”

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