Reboots and sequels and 3D conversions, oh my!

Click your ruby slippers three times fast and say that familiar phrase, wouldya? Okay, now do you still live in a world where nothing is sacred in Hollywood and everything gets tinkered with? Sadly, you totally do. Sigh.

Next up on the chop and change block is "The Wizard of Oz," which has now been juiced up for 3D IMAX and Blu-ray release and yada yada yada. 

Apparently, we got far too hopeful when Disney's "Oz the Great and Powerful" left the beloved original relatively unscathed because this has been in the cooker for quite some time.

According to USA Today, Warner Bros. announced that it has converted "The Wizard of Oz" to 3D and IMAX for a one-week run starting on Sept. 20, and the studio execs expect everyone to be ever so wowed by an enhanced Yellow Brick Road and powerful sound and all the 3D stuffs. This conversion was done on the hush-hush over several months, and a recent test run got the thumbs up from IMAX prez Greg Foster.

"The sound was exceptional," he reported, "the sharpness was exceptional. But it's the color that stands out. What they could do is truly amazing, maybe what people felt when they first saw it."

Now, there are two ways to feel about this. First, we can all be outright angry that what is clearly a masterpiece just couldn't be left well enough alone ...

... Or we could suck it up and be optimistic that maybe, just maybe, they've done this thing right and haven't ruined everything.

In slight favor of the latter option, this Foster fella did seem to comprehend the whole point of "Oz," saying it's "as iconic as they come" and recognizing that "[i]t was one of the first movies that truly came out at you with an explosion of color." Seeing it in theaters, Foster said, is something most people now-a-days have had the privilege to do. "That must have been an amazing experience to see it then, to be truly taken away into another world. That's what we'd like to do."

Guess we won't know for sure until September, when the re-muddled re-mastered film hits 400 IMAX theaters this fall.

And, oh yeah, there'll be a 75th anniversary combo pack with Blu-ray, 3D, DVD, UV and every other film-related acronym you can think of coming along shortly thereafter with a "new" making-of documentary.