Drew Barrymore Has Been Trying to Make ‘Wizard of Oz’ Prequel for 28 Years

Drew Barrymore has wanted to make a Wizard of Oz prequel film for more than two decades.

“Surrender Dorothy is the script I’ve been trying to get made for, I kid you not, 28 years,” Barrymore, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing her Ring and ASPCA partnership. “When we first started Flower Films, it was one of the first scripts I fell in love with and we developed it. So it feels very personal to me.”

Barrymore, who launched her Flower Films production company in 1995, further noted that the script is likely “lying in a vault somewhere.”

“As a director, I would give anything to do [make] that,” she gushed. “And then as an actor, it was sort of not really available to me for many years. And I did try, but [it]  wasn’t feeling right for me.”

Barrymore started acting when she was 5 years old, booking her first starring role as Gertie in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. two years later. A member of the famed Barrymore acting family, she starred in more than 50 films before eventually taking a step back to focus on raising daughters Olive, 11, and Frankie, 10, whom she shares with ex-husband Will Kopelman.

“I would have some really fun times getting to play a character like on Santa Clarita Diet. I loved the character but I wasn’t able to fit it in with the type of mom I want to be and the show did,” she said, referring to her 2017 Netflix series.

With the kids getting older, Barrymore is considering taking on more acting projects.

“I think the girls are like, ‘Yeah, mom, we’re doing great. If you want to go do that, go back and do things,’” she told Us. “Getting that permission from them was really huge and sort of opened up my mind, so we’ll see.”

Barrymore’s Flower Films is gearing up to celebrate its 30th anniversary, which is close to the years that she’s been developing Surrender Dorothy.

“It’s all the same members, and we’re all very prolifically at work right now, much more than I’ve expected to be,” she explained. “We’re producing a lot of stuff, and I’ve been trying to slow down, and then it’s not looking slow at all right now. It’s looking extremely prolific. I feel very grateful.”

Barrymore added, “Our company’s really working on a lot of stuff right now, so I’m not going to lie, I feel kind of exhilarated by it.”

Outside of work and raising her kids, Barrymore is partnering with ASPCA and Ring for their “Ring Pet Portraits.” The nonprofit is inviting pet owners to share their favorite photos of their furry friends through June 14. For every picture submitted under the #RingPets hashtag, Ring promises to donate$10 to the ASPCA.

“I’ve been rescuing since I was 19, so this really, really spoke to me. It was the immediate reason I signed on in the first place,” Barrymore told Us. “Then, I work with Amazon [on The Drew Barrymore Show], so Ross [Mathews] and I have done some segments around the subject. We have never thought about a camera for our pets … but this was a new concept to me, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I totally get this.’ I love this.”

With reporting by Travis Cronin