Rumor of Dakota Fanning to Star in 'Wizard of Oz' Reboot Straightened

© David Gabber/PR Photos

Contrary to the circulating rumor, Dakota Fanning is nowhere near the "Wizard of Oz" reboot. Sharing his insight to the new "dark" take of the classic tale, producer Todd McFarlane confessed to Empire Online that he hasn't even heard about the speculation that the 15-year-old actress has been considered to play Dorothy.

"I haven't heard that," McFarlane responded when presented with the rumor. He further explained his vision saying, "If we just do a sugary sweet Dorothy that everybody has seen over and over for 50 years, as far as I'm concerned, that's too obvious. I'm happy to go with whoever will get the most people in the seats, but sometimes that can change from month to month."

Earlier, Dakota Fanning was linked to the leading role in a "darker and more action-packed" version of "Wizard of Oz". At the time, Daily Express claimed that the Jane of "The Twilight Saga's New Moon" is likely to step into Judy Garland's shoes.

Fanning's rumor aside, McFarlane remained coy on the possibility of the story being based around Dorothy's granddaughter. "The first draft had those elements," he said. "Will they remain? Can't be sure." The 48-year-old cartoonist, in addition, addressed the "dark" theme. "I think my 'Twisted' version is a little scary for Warners to embrace. I essentially pitched Lord of the Rings. It was big, it was bold and it wasn't a very pretty place. It was badass! There's no Baum in it at all," he began explaining.

"When they bought it from me, my thing was, turn off the MGM mindset. It's a public domain property, let's go invent some cool new ideas, which basically will surprise people," he continued. "What's going to get a new generation to go look at Oz is if you reinvent it on some level. Not every single level, but some of them have to be new. Shut down your preconceived notions."

"For me, you should be looking at an isolated movie, that, oh, by the way, happens to be Oz. To get the new audience you're going to have to put some edges on this thing. My version would rock! But they're all like, 'We're spending $100m here, we can't go totally nuts, Todd!' So I've told them that the movie I like is the one they're willing to make!"

So far, the reboot project is on the "second iteration" of the script. "Josh Olsen wrote a draft that didn't quite strike Warners fancy," McFarlane noted. "Everyone was a little lukewarm. They wanted it more sexy! So they were going to do a rewrite and get some fresh eyes on it." No fixed schedule has been set just yet for this new "Wizard of Oz".