Netflix snaps up literary script Dorothy and Alice
David Farnor | On 14, Oct 2017
Netflix has snapped up literary mash-up screenplay Dorothy and Alice.
The spec script was written by Justin Merz, an English teacher at a school in Santa Monica, who previously sold Topsiders (co-written with Jonathan Rosenbloom) to DreamWorks and also worked on Rose Red at Disney.
As the title suggests, the script charts the friendship between two iconic figures from children’s literature: Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz.
The logline (via Deadline) is as follows: Haunted by nightmares of Oz’s impending destruction, Dorothy Gale finds herself in a home for others like her with troubling, vivid dreams. While she is there, she meets a mysterious girl, Alice – who involves her in a perilous quest to not only save the worlds of imagination – those which we come to realize are real and not just dreams – but the world as we know it.
Netflix landed the script after some highly competitive bidding from a number of producers, who were keen on the premise’s potential for building a franchise. The project was ultimately picked up by producer Bryan Unkeless at Clubhouse Pics, who is enjoying acclaim for I, Tonya, starring likely Oscar contender Margot Robbie. Unkeless, meanwhile, is no stranger to Netflix: he has also just produced David Ayer’s Bright, starring Will Smith, which will be the streaming giant’s major Christmas release.