Next, year, Sony will release the soundtrack to the 3D animated musical "Dorothy of Oz," but the film's songs will be unveiled this Saturday (July 23) at Comic-Con in San Diego. The film, which features "Glee" star Lea Michele in the title role, is penciled in for an early spring release.
Bryan Adams has written several original songs for the film with his co-writer Jim Vallance, as has Tift Merritt. Mike Himelstein is providing lyrics, with additional songs and lyrics from Jim Dooley. Composer, orchestrator and arranger Deborah Lurie ("Prom," "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never") and engineer/producer Gustavo Borner are also part of the creative team.
Besides Michele, the album will feature performances by Megan Hilty (star of NBC's midseason musical "Smash"), Hugh Dancy and Martin Short. Adams also contributes vocals and will voice/sing the role of Beaver Foreman in the film. Vicki Hiatt is the music supervisor.
The film also stars Jim Belushi as the Lion, Dan Aykroyd as the Scarecrow and Kelsey Grammer as the Tin Man.
Patrick Stewart, who plays Tugg in the film, will join Lurie, Hilty and other cast members and producers to discuss the film and show clips at Comic-Con on Saturday. Details about the soundtrack are expected to be announced at the "Further Over the Rainbow: A First Look at Dorothy of Oz" session at the San Diego Convention Center.
International versions of the soundtrack will feature local music talent not yet cast. The film will be done several different languages. Summertime Entertainment and Bonne Radford, Ryan Carroll and Roland Carroll are producing the film, which has reported budget of $60 million.
Produced with computer graphics and 3-D stereoscopic techniques for animation, "Dorothy of Oz" begins with Dorothy returning to Kansas to find it devastated by a tornado. She is quickly transported back to Oz, where her help is needed to find her former traveling companions. She meets new friends -- a man made of marshmallows who can't think for himself, for example - and winds up pitted against a wicked Jester.
http://www.billboard.com/news/lea-michele-s-songs-from-dorothy-of-oz-to-1005286612.story#
