Tin Man (SyFy miniseries)

"You're a deep well, Glitch."
"It's all about rhythm."

DG (Deschanel) is discontent with life.  Her dreams predict a storm, and one arrives in the form of a tornado carrying Longcoat soldiers.  The tornado takes her to the O.Z.  She tries to find her parents, who she lost in the storm, and a way home.  To help navigate through the O.Z. she enlists the help of Glitch (Cummings) who has a zipper on his head and minimal memories.  Soon they are joined by former Tin Man Wyatt Cain (McDonough) who lost everything and Raw (Trujillo) a "viewer" who they rescue.  Together they seek the Mystic Man (Dreyfuss) to find answers.

Meanwhile, the ruler of the O.Z., Azkadellia (Robertson) the sorceress, is looking for her own answers.  She is trying to find the Emerald of the Eclipse.  She sends her Longcoats, led by Zero (Rennie), to track down and capture DG.  Can DG save the O.Z. and find her parents?


In 2007, SyFy channel took a break from it's usual monster movies to reimagine L.F. Baum's beloved book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" into a TV miniseries.  The book spawned numerous sequels about the land of Oz, its inhabitants, and Dorothy Gale, all written by Baum.  The original story was transformed into the iconic film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland in 1939.  The film is a popular musical that has been performed by numerous schools and theatre companies (during my sophomore year of high school, the soundtrack was our marching band show, and was also our spring musical... needless to say, I am quite familiar with the story and music of the film).  The story was continued in the 1985 film Return to Oz, an unofficial sequel to The Wizard of Oz, which takes storylines and characters from Baum's other Oz stories.

The story was reimagined into a Broadway show called The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz", in African American culture.  The show was a major hit, and was turned into a film, The Wiz, in 1978 starring Diana Ross.  The film was considered a failure, and significantly changed aspects of the show.

In 1995, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was re-imagined by Gregory Maguire into the novel "Wicked," which focuses on the witches of Oz before Dorothy's arrival.  "Wicked" was so popular that it was reimagined into a successful Broadway musical, also called Wicked.  And apparently there are 2 new Wizard of Oz related projects - a live action film about the Wizard and a cartoon sequel to the Wizard of Oz - to be released in 2012-2013.

That being said, I think SyFy did ok... but there I have a few major issues with the series:
1) Azkadellia - From the beginning she is established as a strong, powerful woman, and pure evil (which several characters state during the film).  Kathleen Robertson is great in that role... why change the character?  She is more interesting when she is pure evil.  The personality change was a major disappointment.

2) Zooey Deschanel - Don't get me wrong... I love her quirky personality.  I watch her show, New Girl, and I have both of her "She & Him" albums.  That being said, I don't think this was the right part for her.  She is ok, but not great.

The series was interesting, an intriguing take on the story.  Check it out.

Tin Man (TV miniseries 2007) 270 minutes
Starring: Zooey Deschanel as DG
Alan Cumming as Glitch
Neal McDonough as Wyatt Cain
Kathleen Robertson as Azkadellia
Raoul Trujillo as Raw
Callum Keith Rennie as Zero
Richard Dreyfuss as Mystic Man
Blu Mankuma as Toto