Oz: The Great and Powerful ArtworkOne of the best trailers we’ve seen all year has to be Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful. With Raimi behind the camera, we always knew the film would be impressive, but the first teaser we saw over the summer blew everyone away.

Promising to be one of the biggest blockbusters of next year, things have been fairly quiet on the Oz front since we saw that first trailer, but now Yahoo Movies have debuted the first of three sections in a great new set of artwork for the film.

“When Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he’s hit the jackpot – fame and fortune are his for the taking – that is until he meets three witches, Theodora, Evanora and Glinda, who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity – and even a bit of wizardry – Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.”

James Franco takes the leading role as Oz, himself, and he’ll be joined by an amazing cast, headed up by Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz, Abigail Spencer, Tim Holmes, and Joey King, with Zach Braff lending his vocal talents to the project.

Based on the original book, The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, the identity of the Wicked Witch that’s teased below isn’t mentioned by name, and so far, we only know that Michelle Williams’ Glinda is set to become the Good Witch, which leaves the role of the Wicked Witch of the West in the hands of either Kunis or Weisz. Exactly which of the two we’re seeing below isn’t yet known, and hopefully the next two sections might give us a further clue as to who our Wicked Witch will be.

Raimi is directing from a script by Mitchell Kapner (The Whole Nine Yards) and David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole), with Joe Roth (Alice in Wonderland) producing, and Raimi partnering once more with Danny Elman (Spider-Man), who’s scoring the film.

Oz: The Great and Powerful will be hitting the big screen on 8th March, 2013, a date which really can’t come fast enough. In the meantime, here’s the great first piece of artwork, which you can click to enlarge. We’ll bring you the next two as soon as they hit.

Oz: The Great and Powerful Artwork