Drew Barrymore was set to star in a Wizard of Oz “prequel” nearly three decades ago.
During a recent chat with US Weekly, the 49-year-old actress and producer shared that in 1995, she was presented a script for a movie titled "Surrender Dorothy," which was a reference to the iconic scene from the 1935 film where the Wicked Witch writes “Surrender Dorothy” across Oz’s skies.
“Surrender Dorothy is the script I’ve been trying to get made for, I kid you not, 28 years,” she told the outlet.
“When we first started Flower Films, it was one of the first scripts I fell in love with and we developed it. So it feels very personal to me,” she recalled, referring to her production company that she started with her producing partner Nancy Juvonen.
However, after years of setbacks, Barrymore mused that the script is probably “lying in a vault somewhere.”
Co-producer Robert Kosberg revealed in 2002 that the story would be set in present day.
“What if the Witch didn’t die? What if it was all an act? And now it’s the year 2000 and the Wicked Witch is still alive and well and mean and green and she’s broken out of Oz Jail and she’s on her way to New York to get those damn red slippers once and for all,” Kosberg teased at the time.