The Wiz (film)

The Wiz is a 1978 American musical adventure film produced in collaboration between Columbia Pictures and Motown Productions, and released by Columbia Pictures on October 24, 1978. An urban reimagining of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz featuring an entirely African-American cast, The Wiz was loosely adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name. The film follows the adventures of Dorothy, a shy twenty-four-year-old Harlem, New York City, schoolteacher who finds herself magically transported to the Land of Oz, which resembles an alternative fantasy version of the Big Apple. Befriended by a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion, she travels through the city to seek an audience with the mysterious Wiz, who they say is the only one powerful enough to send her home.

Produced by Rob Cohen and directed by Sidney Lumet, The Wiz stars Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor. The film's story was reworked from William F. Brown's Broadway libretto by Joel Schumacher, and Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross's songs for film. A handful of new songs, written by Jones and the songwriting team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, were added for the film version. Upon its original theatrical release, The Wiz was a critical and commercial failure, and marked the end of the resurgence of African-American films that began with the blaxploitation movement of the early 1970s. Despite its initial failure, the film version of The Wiz would go on to become a cult classic, particularly among African-American audiences, Oz enthusiasts, and fans of Michael Jackson. Certain aspects of this film adaptation would go on to influence the The Wiz Live!, a live television adaptation of the musical.