After a two-year stint in development limbo and a cancellation eight months ago, NBC has retrieved its Wizard Of Oz-inspired TV series from the trash. The series, titled Emerald City after the sparkly green-tinged metropolis known as Oz, has undergone a resurrection by network brass who have decided it holds some value after all. Along with its ten-episode straight-to-series order, David Schulner (Do No Harm, The Playboy Club) is now attached to write and executive produce.
Universal Television, who is developing and producing the series, has struggled to lift the show off the ground for years in its various permutations. Matthew Arnold (Siberia) concocted the idea and scripted the pilot which received additional punch-ups by Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). While that iteration failed to launch, the current television climate could be the reason by NBC’s change of heart.
Per Deadline, the show has been described as “a modern and dark reimagining of the classic tale of Oz in the vein of Game Of Thrones.” That logline barely grazes the Thronesian influences peppering the fully-fleshed story, so cast your eyes over NBC’s official synopsis for a better grasp of the series:
In the blink of a tornado’s eye, 20-year-old Dorothy Gale and her K9 police dog are transported to another world, one far removed from our own — a mystical land of competing kingdoms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. This is the fabled Land of Oz in a way you’ve never seen before, where wicked witches don’t stay dead for long and a young girl becomes a headstrong warrior who holds the fate of kingdoms in her hands.
Forgive us for the obvious pun, but we’ve got to say it: we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. Warriors, dark magic, bloody battles… and wicked witches who return from the dead? The comparisons to Game Of Thrones and Once Upon A Time are likely to be forged in their thousands when Emerald City eventually hits the air. Nevertheless, they won us over with Toto as a police dog.