'Oz The Great And Powerful' Won't Feature Tin Man Or Scarecrow, Will Have Flying Baboon Army & Bruce Campbell

So yesterday brought the first big reveal at Comic-Con, with attendees getting footage from Sam Raimi's "Oz The Great And The Powerful," and the rest of us getting a trailer shortly after the Hall H presentation ended. And the feedback so far? Mixed to say the least. And while the movie is playing off the mythology of L. Frank Baum's "Wizard Of Oz" -- at least far enough away from the original to stay out of legal trouble from MGM -- and as a result, it looks like two familiar characters have been dumped from Raimi's movie in exchange for...some primates.

Talking up the film in San Diego yesterday, Raimi revealed that Tin Man and Scarecrow would not be featured on his yellow brick road. "The Wicked Witch has an army of flying baboons. And we saw a glimpse of them [in the trailer]. It's the first animation that's completed on it. There's also a flying monkey story, different than the baboons. A nice flying monkey, so don't worry," he said. Uh, flying baboons and monkeys do make us worried. A lot. Particularly when C. Montogomery Burns already tried and failed.

As for where this tale, and quasi-prequel, will fit into the established world we already know, Raimi explained it thusly: "It's the story of a selfish man, who's a little bit of a lothario, a little bit of a cad," he said about James Franco's Oz. "It's how he became ensconced in the Emerald City. By the time this picture ends, the audience has one interpretation of how it all came to be [...] how he became the protector of that great city."

A caddish magician, flying baboons, but no Tin Man or Scarecrow? We'll see how it all works out. But at least there's a great cast on board with Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams all attached, with Raimi adding that his brother Ted Raimi and buddy/collaborator Bruce Cambell will make brief appearances in the movie, describing them respectively as "a bit part" and "a tiny little cameo."

It will be interesting to see Raimi operating in family film mode, for what he describes as an "uplifting" movie, not exactly a descriptor you could have used for his previous movies. We'll see the results next spring on March 8, 2013. [via io9]