About a year or so ago, news came out that New Line Cinema was planning a biopic called The Road to Oz, based on the life of author L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900 and thirteen subsequent Oz books in the early part of the twentieth century. But since that first announcement, things have been pretty quiet in regards to that film. Well, today the project just received an infusion of excitement as Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne looks to be circling the part of Baum for the new film.

If he takes the role, it would be in addition to several high-profile roles he’s taken on ever since winning the big prize for The Theory of Everything, including the part of Lili Elbe, the first known recipient of sexual reassignment surgery in The Danish Girl, and Newt Scamander in the eagerly anticipated Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  So far, the film doesn’t have a director attached yet.

This could be another potential Oscar nomination for Redmayne, since the life of L. Frank Baum was the quintessential late-in-life rags to riches story. Although he grew up well-to-do, Baum spent his adult life moving from place to place and trying his hand at magazine publishing, the theater, and running a store. Finally, at the age of 44, he struck gold with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was an enormous success and spawned a series that was the Harry Potter of its day. But the success of Oz was something he could never replicate or get away from, no matter how hard he tried. All of this is the kind of juicy true-life story stuff that Redmayne likes to sink his teeth into, and could be another great part for the 33-year-old actor.

HT: Tracking Board