The upcoming Disney project Oz: The Great and Powerful is just one of many developing projects deriving from the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. With so many recent casting developments, it’s about time that a date was set, isn’t it? Well, the Mouse House has just announced that the film is set for release on March 8, 2013 with production beginning in July.
There’s also another development in the project: Variety relays that Joey King, from last summer's children’s feature Ramona and Beezus, has a supporting role in the feature. She’ll play China Doll, a porcelain-skinned orphan who Oz more or less adopts as his own. James Franco will play Oz; Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, and Michelle Williams will also star as various good and bad witches.
King isn’t exactly an A-list actress just yet, but that might change in the very near future. She’ll be in Crazy, Stupid, Love with Steve Carell and Julianne Moore later this year, and she’s snagged a role in The Dark Knight Rises.
With a March release and 3D attached, Disney’s aiming for Raimi’s “Oz” to be the studio’s next Alice in Wonderland. That film became one of the highest grossing features in motion picture history. Will Oz: The Great and Powerful pull off that same feat?