McGee said the hero of the story, a teenage boy named Arthur, is whisked away from Earth to an Oz in turmoil. "Like Neo in 'The Matrix' films, the boy makes a hero's journey and comes to grips with his powers," he said. "What Jerry Bruckheimer was able to do with 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was simply brilliant, and since 'Oz' is similar in tone to that film franchise, I'd like to follow that model."
McGee will write the script for the first film and an outline for its two sequels, which will conclude with the land of Oz returned to its condition as fans of the book and the popular MGM movie know it. While this will be McGee's first commissioned Hollywood script, he's very familiar with the material. He and writer Camden Joy already have completed a generously illustrated 500-page novelization of the game, which Warner Books is on board to publish.
"People always talk about games being nonlinear, but a video game story does follow a linear structure, it's just broken into 40 acts instead of three," McGee said. "The nice thing about the Hollywood film style is that I can explore multiple character perspectives, whereas game stories are limited to one perspective for game play."
This marks the second time that Bruckheimer has enlisted a video game creator to write the film adaptation of his game; Jordan Mechner is turning his "Prince of Persia" game into a big-screen feature.
As part of the "Oz" activity, McGee's video game is being revived after Infogrames (now Atari) dropped its option during a cost-cutting sweep.
McGee said a new line of "Oz" action figures also will be released next year through a new manufacturer, the original line from Milos Workshop having sold well with limited distribution.
But "Oz" is just one of McGee's current projects. Enlight Interactive recently shipped "American McGee's Scrapland" for PC, and it will hit Xbox early next year. McGee called the game a "a film-noir murder mystery set in a world full of robots" and said he is shopping the film rights.
"The Forgotten Faery Tale" is up next. McGee has completed a movie script that follows the story of Grimm, a teenage boy who tries to bring balance to a world that has too many happy endings. McGee said that like "Shrek," the central live action story will have familiar fairy tales as a backdrop.