It looks like the indie kid that could is getting ready to make his leap into the tentpole world.
Deadline reports that everyone’s fave “Garden State“-directing, Shins-mixtape-making dude, Zach Braff, has joined Sam Raimi‘s “Oz The Great And Powerful.” Starring James Franco, Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams and Joey King, the prequel of sorts follows Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmanuel Ambroise Diggs (Franco), a showman and magician at a traveling circus who flees in a hot air balloon after being caught canoodling with a customer’s wife only to be swept away in a terrible storm to wake up in the magical land of Oz, which is run by two magical wicked witches (Kunis and Weisz). Williams will play Glinda the Good Witch, with the young King as China Girl. As for Braff, he will play Franco’s loyal but underappreciated assistant.
Production is gearing up to start in July, just after his new play “All New People” opens in New York City on the Second Stage Theater. The production which he wrote, but isn’t starring in, has its opening night on June 25th and taking off to Michigan might be a good way for the writer/actor to get away and change gears. As for when we’ll next get to see him direct, that may be a while off yet, but he did tell us last month that he does have something that — if it all comes together — could get rolling as soon as January.
As for Raimi, he’s got plenty to time to work on his film as it’s not scheduled to hit theaters until March 8, 2013.
