First Oz The Great and Powerful trailer

The first trailer for 'Oz The Great And The Powerful' has been unveiled, starring James Franco as the man who becomes the Wizard Of Oz in a prequel to the 1939 classic.

Watch it below:

Directed by the legendary Sam Raimi ('Spider-Man'), the plot revolves around Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, who is transported to the land of Oz from Kansas in a tornado and sets about transforming himself into the prophesied Wizard for its fame and fortune.

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He then encounters the three witches Theodora (played by Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Wiesz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who do not believe he is the man they have been waiting for.

Diggs has to work out which of the witches he can trust, and which are evil, becoming a better man in the process.

"It all started with Baum's great books," said director Raimi. "He wrote about this fantastic place with unusual characters and flora & fauna and animals and sights. It all goes back to those books.

"I really loved the screenplay. At first I was a little afraid because I didn't want to have anything to do with a movie that was trading on the good name of the Wizard of Oz movie because I love it so much and I know how much the fans love it but I felt that this nodded lovingly toward it yet told its own original fantastic tale. Thats the first thing that appealed to me."

Franco won the role of the Wizard after it had been previously linked to Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr.

'Oz The Great and Powerful' is due for a UK release in March 2013.