Oh Auntie Em, Auntie Em

Sounding like a cross between Gregory MacGuire's Wicked and Peter Jackson's adaption of JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Tin Man, presented by the Sci Fi Channel, re-envisions Frank L. Baum's Oz as the Outer Zone (O.Z.) Presented as a miniseries beginning December 2, DG (Dorothy Gale), a mid-west waitress finds herself carried off to a dark land under the tyrannical rule of sorceress Azkadellia. This six hour event promises loads of computer generated special effects, and although various reviews seem to pan it, it still peaks my interest.

"Tin Man" takes the beloved L. Frank Baum fantasy classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" -- the source for a fairly popular 1939 feature film -- and transforms it into the equivalent of an acid trip replete with crazed sociopaths and one very scary sex-bomb sorceress.

Buam's classic has endured for generations because it is an archetypal coming of age story. Innocence is lost as young Dorothy comes to realize she is the pawn in an epic power struggle. Updated for a new generation, Tin Man promises dark and edgy imagery to once again provide an allegory to the sinister truths about the world around us.

"Tin Man" a bizarre update of "Wizard of Oz" [Reuters]