The Cast - CHICAGO SCI-FI

“There are many different groups of people in the picture,” Raimi states. “In Glinda’s
Kingdom, Quadling Country, we have the Tinkers. The Tinkers are led by the Master Tinker,
played by Bill Cobbs. He does a wonderful job because he’s very world-wise and soulful. He’s
wise to the Wizard’s true motivations, but Glinda inspires him to have faith. So even a wise
man can learn something as far as matters of the heart.”
Adds Raimi’s producing partner, Grant Curtis, “The Tinkers are these 90-year-old gentlemen
who can’t see six inches in front of their faces, yet they’re these amazing inventors and architects
in the Land of Oz. The Master Tinker is another person that Oz meets along his adventures
who imparts wisdom that allows him to be the full individual he becomes at the end of the
movie.”
Raimi’s Land of Oz is also populated with the Emerald City guards, called The Winkies, a
group the director describes as “10-foot tall soldiers that the Wicked Witch employs to terrorize
the citizens of Emerald City. They’re her standing army, along with an Air Force of sorts, her
Winged Baboons.”
Of course, the world of Oz would not be complete without the Munchkins, “the little people in
the Land of Oz who like to sing and dance, make pretty clothes, and are generally quite merry,”
states the director. “They are going to become the unsung heroes of our story. They’re going to
make up the ‘underground’ of the Emerald City, those people who believe in Glinda and the
cause and are working secretly against the Wicked Witch.”
For “Oz The Great and Powerful,” the production’s casting directors found three dozen Little
People, most from the Detroit area where filming took place. Their short stature (3 feet 6 inches
in height) sharply contrasted to the towering Winkies, four dozen “giants” all of whom stood no
shorter than 6 feet 6 inches tall (some exceeding the 7-foot ceiling).
Chief among the Little People gathered for the project was veteran actor Tony Cox as the
Munchkin Knuck, who is a resident of Emerald City. “He works there, always around Evanora
and Theodora,” says Cox. “Like the witches, he doesn’t believe in this Oz guy. He really thinks
Oscar Diggs is a fake. The only reason he goes along with him on the journey is because of
Glinda the Good Witch. She’s Knuck’s friend, but the bad witches don’t know that.”
“We worked really hard to make the characters, which are so mythologized, human,”
screenwriter Lindsay-Abaire offers. “I hope, in addition to wanting to see the characters they
know and love from the books, that audiences will relate to these new characters. It’s an exciting
human story that enhances everything they’ve known about the Land of Oz and makes it
better.”