‘It’s a Wonderful Life,’ ‘Wizard of Oz’ To Get Diversity Reboot

(RepublicanReport.org) – A Hollywood director is currently working on updated versions of two classic films, but he doesn’t plan on simply retelling them. He wants to create completely new stories based on their premises, appealing to a diverse audience and reimagining the characters to offer new points of view. While some people are celebrating the alternative reboots, others question whether the two classics will become the latest casualties of the woke agenda.

Director Kenya Barris believes there’s a place for so-called “intellectual property” works — books and movies that came out before modern copyright laws, which renders remakes and “reboots” fair game without any payment to the original creators. He says such stories, which writers and directors revisit “again and again and again,” according to Variety, are the perfect material for retelling through new points of view.

And boy, does he have some big plans for “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

“It’s a Wonderful Life,” originally released in 1947 and starring Jimmy Stewart, will be retold through the lens of a person of color. Barris apparently feels that the original story is prime material for a reboot — which he believes is the perfect vehicle to relay the difficulties minorities face in their communities.

Daily Wire reports that Barris wants to wrench “The Wizard of Oz” even further from its canonic roots by transforming Kansas country girl Dorothy Gale into a resident of Inglewood, California. Even more questionable, the girl doesn’t get transported to Oz. She instead finds herself in “Underhood,” which the director indicates is on the outskirts of the iconic Emerald City. The original film, which starred Judy Garland, came out in 1939.

Barris, who is also the creative mind behind “Blackish,” seeks to offer representation and diversity in his movies. The one major element he failed to account for is the nostalgia factor, which is likely to end up missing if his completed visions prove unrecognizable to their original fan base.