Oz. When you think of the fictional location, you probably picture a yellow brick road, a cute little dog, and a blue gingham dress.
However, while the 1939 film Wizard of Oz might be the most widely known adaptation of the books by L. Frank Baum, it's hardly the only interpretation, and NBC's about to add one more to the list with Emerald City. Debuting Friday, the drama, starring Adria Arjona (as Dorothy) and Vincent D'Onofrio (as The Wizard), showcases a darker spin on Oz and the characters you know from Baum's stories. IGN talked to Arjona, D'Onofrio, and series executive producers David Schulner and Shaun Cassidy about what to expect from the 10-episode first season.
Emerald City wasn't produced in the traditional manner, with a pilot made before the network decided if they wanted to order the series. It's the first television series directed by Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall), and he only agreed to come on board if NBC ordered a full season of 10 episodes from the start. The network agreed, and it was Singh's involvement that attracted D'Onofrio, coming off his acclaimed work as the Kingpin in Daredevil, to the project.
"I heard that Tarsem was directing it, and I heard about the project at the same time," D'Onofrio recalled. He was working on The Magnificent Seven, and Tarsem's agent represented somebody else on set. D'Onofrio asked the agent what Tarsem was up to. "He told me and I said, 'Tell him I want to play the Wizard of Oz. So, the next thing I knew I was playing the Wizard of Oz! I hadn't even read the script yet but I knew because of Tarsem... [Laughs] I did have to tell David and Shaun in a very diplomatic way that, 'Look, I really want to do this, but I have to read the scripts before we sign anything.'"
D'Onofrio liked what he read, realizing he and Schulner were on the same wavelength with wanting to move The Wizard into a deeper place. He said, "[We wanted] to take this metaphor of the being, to turn the guy behind the curtain into a metaphor for our wizard's psyche. It makes him who he is. We started dealing with issues of worthlessness and these kind of real human issues. As we did that, it fit perfectly into this origin story of Oz for all the characters and how they all became who they are. Now we have, suddenly we have the Wizard evolving into who we know him as this psychotic character."
This take on The Wizard shows the character hiding behind his true nature with showboating and posturing because, as D'Onofrio explained, "He's a total f**king loser." Season 1 won't pull any punches about what made The Wizard the way he is; they'll go into his backstory and it's not pretty. Though he talks a big game, The Wizard's concerned with how people perceive him. "He can take the smallest little thing that somebody says and turn it into this huge thing inside himself. They're [the characters in Emerald City] people who suffer from issues like this – like we all do," D'Onofrio said.
Dorothy has issues of her own, and she's not quite like any other version of the character. She's a police officer from Kansas who ends up in Oz after a tornado with her dog at her side. She's fierce and curious. Arjona admires Dorothy's strength and how she develops in the show. She said, "Dorothy goes through a lot on this entire journey. I found it really fascinating because it's so much – I think every girl goes through being young and insecure and doubtful. She becomes a woman throughout this entire journey, and I wanted to play that. I wanted to find that journey within myself, and I did and I had a lot of fun."
Viewers accompany Dorothy as she discovers the new and bizarre world around her. She has to face a number of unexpected characters and concepts along the way, but it doesn't cause hesitation. "She's very spontaneous and intuitive. She fights for what she believes in and she just goes for it one hundred percent, no matter what is at risk, as long as it's to help another person or to save a life of another person. She always fights for others."
Arjona also expressed her admiration for Singh. "He's such a visual genius and such a great story teller. But he does it in a non-conventional way. He's loving, and caring, and super humble, and he'll take you on this journey without even realizing you're going on a journey. That's the power that he has for the people's he working with. And he's created such a great world. You saw how exciting it is, how big – it's so different."
Schulner said working with Singh was a windfall but a leap of faith. They filmed all 10 episodes simultaneously, going from location to location. "We shot a first act of episode one and the last act of episode ten on the same day," Schulner said, "As a result, episode one wasn't finished for four months because we had to put all the pieces together."
Since filming was complete, there wasn't room for reshoots if NBC didn't like anything. It was a hard sell. Schulner said Singh told NBC, "'I'm going to give you something you have never seen before, but you have to take the risk.' He promised to deliver on a visual feast and telling the story in a way no one else could, and he did. He delivered."
Emerald City has been in the works for a while, and Cassidy explained the series found its own place over time. "This vision got sharper in each incarnation. It got sharper and more specific and became more of its own thing. You have to embrace Baum and embrace the Wizard of Oz that you know, and then let go of all of it. This is a new story."
Emerald City will premiere on January 6 on NBC at 9pm ET/PT.
Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @amy_geek.
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