Despite the mostly hostile reception afforded to Prometheus, and the lingering bad taste left by The Phantom Menace, the prequel remains firmly in favour with those big shot Hollywood execs. The Wizard of Oz is the latest-cum-oldest classic flick to be given the prequel treatment, in the shape of Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful, a first poster for which has just been released.

When Sam Raimi served up Drag Me to Hell back in 2009, he seemed a talent revitalised after the mega-budget burnout of Spider-Man 3. However having made the mistake of going back to that franchise for the Spider-Man 4 That Never Was, any post-Drag momentum has ebbed away, and when Oz: The Great and Powerful opens, it will have been five long years since the director’s last movie.

With all that time on the clock, one might hope that Oz will deliver the goods. Alas, the omens are ill, with it seemingly only having been pressed into production by Disney and its former chairman Joe Roth because that axis’ previous fantasy-themed collaboration, Alice in Wonderland, made an absolute bundle at the global box office.

Robert Downey Jr has originally been slated to play the lead role of Oscar Diggs, a fast-talking huckster who winds up in the merry ol’ land of Oz and duly becomes the Wizard of legend – but only after some wrangling with a trio of variously good and wicked witches.

RDJ soon departed though, leaving James Franco to step in, while the witch roles of Theodora, Evanora and Glinda have been taken by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams respectively. Oh, and Zach Braff voices a flying monkey.

On the plus side, it can’t possibly be as bad as it sounds. Here’s the poster.

Oz The Great and Powerful is released on 8 March 2013.