Disney unveils trailer for ‘Oz’ at Comic-Con

Calling Comic-Con International in San Diego his “home away from home,” director Sam Raimi brought a new trailer for his “Oz: The Great and Powerful” to the cavernous Hall H on Thursday afternoon, and the new footage impressed the thousands on hand at the San Diego Convention Center.

A backstory about how the Wizard of Oz arrived in the city, the Disney film stars James Franco (who replaced Robert Downey Jr.), Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and Abigail Spencer, the last three of whom play witches. “I don’t want to be a good man,” Franco says in the trailer. “I want to be a great one.” A tornado soon increases the chances for his wish becoming true.

The film, Raimi’s first feature since 2009’s “Drag Me to Hell,” will hit theaters March 8, 2013. Raimi is of course best known for directing the first three “Spider-Man” movies for Sony; he was replaced in the latest iteration by Marc Webb.

Like the original “Wizard of Oz” film, the trailer for the new movie starts in black and white before converting into color. And even though they are only glimpsed briefly, it looks as if the famous flying monkeys from the 1939 movie classic are back.