The Wizard of Oz Makes It Back To The Big Screen

The 85th anniversary of, "The Wizard of Oz." the 1939 classic will return to movie screens for a special engagement. This special screening will also feature well-known film historian and film critic Leonard Maltin. Leonard will also give his perspective on The Wizzard of Oz one-of-a-kind classic.

The Wizard of Oz from 1939 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is a musical in black and white and fantastic color in the same movie. An adaptation from the book of the same name in the 1900's by  L. Frank Baum.

Check out the (Original 1939 movie trailer) below.

The Wizard of Oz's 85th anniversary will be this January 28-29th and 31st. The company Fathom Events for their big screen series is showing the movie at local theaters near you. Tickets available at Fathomevents.com

https://www.fathomevents.com/events/the-wizard-of-oz-85th-anniversary/

The cast of The Wizard of Oz was a blockbuster collection of actors for their time. It stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton as the wicked witch of the West.

The Wizard of Oz in Technicolor was a  success and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning Best Original Song for "Over the Rainbow" and Best Original Score. While the film was popular at the box office, it failed to make a profit for MGM. Later releases and the rights sold to television for years helped profits and entertained generations for years to come.

A youthful Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept away by a tornado from their Kansas farm to the magical Land of Oz, and embark on a quest with three new friends to see the Wizard, who can return her to her home and fulfill the others' wishes.

Coming from the TV generation, I would always watch the film growing up with my sister Brenda. I can tell you from my childhood the movie scared me to death growing up. Flying monkeys, talking trees, the wicked witch of the West. It was a lot to take in for a child back then. In later years I learned to appreciate Judy Garland's talents and the whole story on the making of the 1939 classic.

Streaming giant Netflix has a lot of highly-anticipated movies to offer their subscribers. From comedies to grisly dramas, the streamer's January releases feature some of our favorite actors and producers. With the writers and actors strikes over, streamers and production companies are releasing projects that have been held off due to production being shut down in the latter half of 2023.

For Netflix, one of the streamer’s highest-profile new series, 3 Body Problem, was bumped out of 2023 and into 2024. This is the first post-Game of Thrones show from creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss, arriving in the Spring. The sci-fi drama has been in the works since 2020, starring Eiza González, Benedict Wong, and Game of Thrones alums John Bradley, Liam Cunningham, and Jonathan Pryce. Additionally, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series is just as highly anticipated for fans of the beloved original Nickelodeon animated series. It will be coming to the streamer in late February.

Sofia Vergara stars as real-life Colombian cartel boss Griselda Blanco in a miniseries, looking completely unrecognizable. In it, she creates one of the most profitable cartels in history. With six episodes that are each an hour long, Griselda creator Eric Newman said Vergara was perfect for the role "not only because she, like Griselda, is a single mother who came to America from Colombia with nothing and built an empire, but because it was unexpected of her to do. Sofia has been thought of one way, a beautiful and brilliant comedic actress, and she is so much more than that."

For the movie fanatics, Netflix has a few standout films kicking off January alone. Another standout project is Society of the Snow, the harrowing story of the Uruguayan rugby team that crash-landed in the Andes mountains in 1972. Kevin Hart offers a new comedy in a heist film, and Dan Levy directs and stars in a dramedy titled Good Grief. Coming in March, Millie Bobby Brown stars in a fantasy action movie called Damsel. Later in the month, Lindsay Lohan stars in her second rom-com, Irish Wish. April brings Zack Snyder's sequel, Rebel Moon Part 2: The Scargiver.

Take a look below at the new additions that will be released in January 2024 on Netflix:

Spanish director J.A. Bayona’s thriller Society of the Snow debuts on Thursday, January 4. The film is the latest cinematic retelling of the miraculous story of the Uruguayan rugby team that crash-landed on a glacier in the heart of the Andes in 1972. The survivors join forces and become each other's best hope as they navigate their way back home, resorting to extreme measures to stay alive.

The following day on Friday, January 5, Netflix debuts dramedy Good Grief, written, directed, and starring Schitt's Creek's Dan Levy. In it, he plays a London-based artist who spends a year mourning his husband before making a startling discovery about their relationship on a trip to Paris with his best friends.

One week later on Friday, January, Kevin Hart stars in a plane heist comedy film called Lift. The story centers on Cyrus Whitaker (Hart), the leader of an international heist team who gets enlisted to steal $500 millions worth of gold from a mid-air passenger plane before the fortune ends up in the wrong hands. The ensemble cast includes Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Jacob Batalon, Jean Reno and Sam Worthington.

Sofia Vergara will shock all her Modern Family fans as she dramatically shifts away from comedy with this miniseries. Debuting on the streamer on January 25, Vergara plays the ruthless Colombian “Godmother,” Griselda Blanco, who created one of the most profitable cartels in history. The six one-hour episodes come from the creators and executive producers of Narcos and has been described as a “cousin” to those two shows.