Up-and-coming screenwriter Anna Klassen has been tapped by Netflix to write Dorothy And Alice. If those two names sound familiar, it’s because the script will follow the fantastical friendship between two of literature’s most iconic characters – Dorothy from The Wizard Of Oz, and Alice from Alice In Wonderland.
Justin Merz originally wrote the first draft as a schoolteacher in Santa Monica, before Netflix then acquired the project in 2017 as a potential franchise starter. The original script found Dorothy haunted by nightmares of Oz’s destruction. She’s then sent to a home for others who experience troubling dreams, and befriends Alice, who involves her in a perilous quest to save the world’s imagination.
However, Collider reports that the plot has changed since the announcement of the original spec script sale. Netflix and producer Bryan Unkeless (I, Tonya) reportedly want Klassen to take the story in a different direction.
Klassen said on Twitter: “I grew up reading these books & this project has been endlessly fun to craft – to reinvent treasured characters and explore the worlds I wanted to inhabit as a kid”.
Klassen formerly worked as an Entertainment Journalist at publications such as Bustle, Newsweek, and BuzzFeed. She was able to pursue screenwriting full time when her J.K. Rowling biopic titled When Lightning Strikes was voted to the 2017 Hollywood Black List.
The script chronicles the true story of 25-year-old Rowling as she weathers first loves, unexpected pregnancies, lost jobs, and depression on her journey to create Harry Potter. Klassen’s script earned her numerous meetings in tinseltown before winning over executives at Netflix. She’s also reportedly developing a second project there, too.
That’s a swift and monumental rise for any screenwriter. If she already made waves with a biography of a famous author, imagine what she can do with two iconic literary icons at her disposal.
#Peace.Love.AnnaKlassen
