Tin Man | |
---|---|
Sci Fi Channel promotional poster
|
|
Genre | Adventure Fantasy Sci-Fi |
Written by | Jill E. Blotevogel Steven Long Mitchell Craig W. Van Sickle |
Directed by | Nick Willing |
Starring |
Zooey Deschanel Alan Cumming Neal McDonough Raoul Trujillo Kathleen Robertson Richard Dreyfuss |
Theme music composer | Simon Boswell |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Producer(s) | Matthew O'Connor |
Cinematography | Thomas Burstyn |
Editor(s) | Allan Lee |
Running time | 270 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | Sci Fi Channel |
Original release | December 2 | – December 4, 2007
Tin Man is a 2007 four-and-a-half-hour miniseries co-produced by RHI Entertainment and Sci Fi Channel original pictures that was broadcast in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel in three parts. The first part aired on December 2, and the remaining two parts airing on the following nights. It was released to DVD on March 11, 2008; the same year it was rebroadcast in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Starring Zooey Deschanel, Neal McDonough, Alan Cumming, Raoul Trujillo, Kathleen Robertson, and Richard Dreyfuss, the miniseries is a continuation of the classic story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with science fiction and additional fantasy elements added. It focuses on the adventures of a small-town waitress named DG who is pulled into a magical realm called the O.Z., ruled by the tyrannical sorceress Azkadellia. Together with her companions Glitch, Raw, and Cain, DG journeys to uncover her lost memories, find her true parents. and foil Azkadellia's plot to trap the O.Z. in eternal darkness.
Costing $20 million to produce, the first part of the miniseries was the highest-rated program in its time slot, with 6.4 million viewers; the miniseries itself would be the highest-rated miniseries of 2007. It was nominated for nine Emmy awards, winning one, and was also nominated for a Critics' Choice Award. Critics gave it mixed reviews, with some praising the acting, soundtrack, and visual effects, while others found it overly grim and bleak.
DG (Zooey Deschanel) is a small-town waitress who feels that she does not fit into her Kansas farm life and has visions of a lavender-eyed woman (Anna Galvin) warning her that a storm is coming. Her visions are realized when the sorceress Azkadellia (Kathleen Robertson), tyrannical ruler of the O.Z. (Outer Zone), sends her Longcoat soldiers through a "travel storm" to kill DG. DG escapes through the storm into the O.Z. and befriends several of its inhabitants: Glitch (Alan Cumming), who had half of his brain removed by Azkadellia; Wyatt Cain (Neal McDonough), a former "Tin Man" law enforcer who was locked in an iron suit for years as punishment for opposing Azkadellia; and Raw (Raoul Trujillo), a "viewer" whose people have been enslaved by Azkadellia. DG receives a magical symbol on her palm and learns that her Kansan parents are androids and that her real mother is the lavender-eyed woman of her visions. Visiting the Mystic Man (Richard Dreyfuss) in Central City and continuing on to the Northern Island, the group learns that Glitch was once the advisor to the Queen of the O.Z. and that DG and Azkadellia are actually sisters and the daughters of the Queen. DG remembers that Azkadellia killed her using dark magic when they were children, but their mother revived her by light magic and gave her secret instructions on how to find the Emerald of the Eclipse, which Azkadellia now seeks. Azkadellia confronts the group with her Longcoats and mobats, capturing DG and Raw. Cain fights the Longcoat captain Zero (Callum Keith Rennie) and learns that his wife and son, whom he thought Zero had killed, are still alive. Zero shoots Cain, sending him falling into a lake of ice.