Jeff Goldblum, notorious kooky old guy, seems like the perfect fit to play the great and powerful Oz in any adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. And as it so happens, it appears he’ll be taking up the role of the man behind the curtain in Wicked. Variety reports that Goldblum is in final talks to play the Wizard in the upcoming two-part Wicked movie adaptation helmed by Jon M. Chu.
Goldblum will join Ariana Grande as Glinda, Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba (the future wicked witch of the west), and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero (a handsome citizen of Oz). Wicked, the musical, is based on the book by Gregory Maguire, who wrote a series of novels that give well-known fairy tales’ twisted beginnings or off-color endings. The story recounts how Glinda and Elphaba, formerly students at an academy of magic in Oz, became the Good Witch and Bad Witch that children know from L. Frank Baum’s books (or, more likely, from the 1939 musical).
The two parts of Wicked are set for release on the Christmases of 2024 and 2025.
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