In between, between: Dorothy fell in love with the Scarecrow

Wizard of Oz: What could of been and what was.

Oz before.

Oz now.

A PRE-QUEL to the beloved tale The Wizard of Oz will hit the silver screen next year.

The film, Oz the Great and Powerful, will follow the Wizard on his journey from small-time magician from Kansas to the ruler of the magical kingdom Oz.

The wizard will be played by James Franco, while Michelle Williams will play the Good Witch. And the Bad Witch, who doesn't seem to be all that bad, will be played by Mila Kunis.

While I'm looking forward to this new angle of a land we all grew up wishing to visit, I for one remain a dedicated fan to the original.

Here are some fun facts about the 1939 original you may or may not know:

1. Dorothy's slippers were meant to be silver.

In the novel by L. Frank Baum, the slippers were silver but the producers behind the film wanted to take advantage of the new Technicolor process and changed the slippers to the vivid ruby color we know today. Multiple pairs were made for the filming of The Wizard of Oz but it's said only five remain in tact today. One pair was stolen in 2005 and have never been recovered. Various designs were made of the Ruby Slipper too and one of those designs, a "curled toe" Arabian style, which never made it on screen, sold for $510,000 at an auction last year.

2. Dorothy was supposed to be blonde.

Judy Garland initially wore a blonde wig for the part of Dorothy until the directors decided against it a few days into filming. Dorothy's iconic blue gingham dress was chosen for it's "blurring effects" on Garland's figure.

3. Dorothy and the Scarecrow were to fall in love.

A concluding scene back in Kansas after Dorothy's return was removed before final script approval and never filmed. If it had, we would look at Dorothy's relationship with the bumbling Scarecrow quite differently. In the end scene, Hunk (the Kansan version of the Scarecrow) is about to leave for agricultural college and asks Dorothy to write to him. This scene apperently was meant to imply that a romance would develop between the two. This is said to explain Dorothy's preference for the Scarecrow over her other two companions in Oz. Traces of this plot idea can still be noticed throughout the film however, particularly when Dorothy is about to leave Oz and tells the Scarecrow, "I think I'll miss you most of all."

4. The munchkins' singing voices were dubbed.

About 130 little people were cast as munchkins. The songs we're all familiar with, such as that by the Lollypop Guild, do not actually feature the voice's of the munchkins but various singers and vocal groups. As of today only three of the original cast of munchkins are known to be alive.

5. Good woman, bad witch.

The Wicked Witch of the West is one of the world's most recognisable villians and is today used as a protocol for what witches should look like. But the woman who played the character Margaret Hamilton, a former school teacher, loved children and gave to charities. When asked about her experiences during filmin, Hamilton said she often worried what the effect her character would have on children. On a side note: Hamilton played three characters in the film, not two as most would think. She played the Wicked Witch of the West, her Kansan alter-ego Almira Gulch and The Wicked Witch of the East. Although not credited, Hamilton played the latter role in the tornado sequence where she is undoubtedly the Witch of the East as she is wearing the Ruby Slippers.