Drew Barrymore has been pursuing the dream of directing a Wizard of Oz movie for almost three decades: ‘I would do anything to bring that to life’

Drew Barrymore is opening up about the film she’s been trying to make for nearly 30 years – a prequel to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.

The 49-year-old actress and filmmaker started her production company Flower Films in 1995 with her producing partner Nancy Juvonen, and one of the first films she developed was Surrender Dorothy, written by Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction).

Barrymore – who made headlines earlier this month for falling out of her chair during a CBS special in Times Square – opened up about the project to US Weekly, which refers to the project as a ‘Wizard of Oz prequel’ though earlier reports from 2010 indicate it was, at least then, a sequel.

The title was taken from an iconic shot in The Wizard of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West skywrites Surrender Dorothy in the sky above Oz. 

‘Surrender Dorothy is the script I’ve been trying to get made for, I kid you not, 28 years,’ Barrymore said, while promoting her Ring and ASPCA partnership.

‘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 admitted.

Drew Barrymore is opening up about the film she’s been trying to make for nearly 30 years – a prequel to the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz

The 49-year-old actress and filmmaker started her production company Flower Films in 1995 with her producing partner Nancy Juvonen, and one of the first films she developed was Surrender Dorothy, written by Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction).

The title was taken from an iconic shot in The Wizard of Oz where the Wicked Witch of the West skywrites Surrender Dorothy in the sky above Oz 

She joked that the script is probably, ‘lying in a vault somewhere,’ with Barrymore first attached to the project as a producer and actress back in 2002.

She was set to produce the film with Robert Kosberg, who teased that the story would be set in present-day revealing that the Wicked Witch of the West was actually still alive, according to an EW story from October 2002.

‘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 said to the defunct writing website AbsoluteWrite.com.

However, in 2010 – after making her directorial debut with 2009’s roller derby film Whip It – Barrymore announced she would take the helm on Surrender Dorothy, which revealed Dorothy’s great great granddaughter would be central to the plot.

A May 2010 report from Collider describes the project as following, ‘the great, great granddaughter of Dorothy who has to learn how to use the power of those ruby red slippers to keep the Wicked Witch of the West from taking control of the kingdoms of Earth and Oz.’

The project never moved forward, though Barrymore is seemingly still quite interested to direct it after all these years.

‘As a director, I would give anything to do [make] that. And then as an actor, it was sort of not really available to me for many years,’ she said.  

She added that when she was attached to star, ‘And I did try, but [it] wasn’t feeling right for me.’

Barrymore is a mother of two daughters – 11-year-old Olivia and 10-year-old Frankie – adding they have encouraged her to start acting again, which she has done sparingly since wrapping her Netflix show Santa Clarita Diet.

She joked that the script is probably, ‘lying in a vault somewhere,’ with Barrymore first attached to the project as a producer and actress back in 2002

She was set to produce the film with Robert Kosberg, who teased that the story would be set in present-day revealing that the Wicked Witch of the West was actually still alive, according to an EW story from October 2002

A May 2010 report from Collider describes the project as following, ‘the great, great granddaughter of Dorothy who has to learn how to use the power of those ruby red slippers to keep the Wicked Witch of the West from taking control of the kingdoms of Earth and Oz’

‘As a director, I would give anything to do [make] that. And then as an actor, it was sort of not really available to me for many years,’ she said

‘I think the girls are like, “Yeah, mom, we’re doing great. If you want to go do that, go back and do things,”‘ Drew stated.

‘Getting that permission from them was really huge and sort of opened up my mind, so we’ll see,’ she admitted.

As Flower Films eyes its 30th anniversary next year, Barrymore insists, ‘It’s all the same members, and we’re all very prolifically at work right now, much more than I’ve expected to be.’

‘We’re producing a lot of stuff, and I’ve been trying to slow down, and then it’s not looking slow at all right now. It’s looking extremely prolific. I feel very grateful,’ she said.