NBC orders 'Wizard of Oz'-based drama and child-slap miniseries

NBC just announced two wildly different drama projects. One is a re-imagining L. Frank Baum’s Land of Oz as a drama series and the other is a provocative miniseries that explores how society reacts when a child is slapped in public.

Emerald City is 10-epsiode Oz-set tale described by NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt as a modern “thrilling, more epic version” of Baum’s stories that drops Dorothy into a place “that’s definitely not her grandmother’s Oz” with “a lot of new characters.”

Based on the 14-book series that first created the Land of Oz, Emerald City is further described as a “dramatic and modern re-imagining of the tales that include lethal warriors, competing kingdoms, and the infamous wizard as we’ve never seen him before.” The project stars a “head-strong 20-year-old Dorothy Gale” who is “unwittingly sent on an eye-opening journey that thrusts her into the center of an epic and bloody battle for the control of Oz.” Writer Matt Arnold and Josh Friedman will serve as executive producers.

Meanwhile, The Slap, is an eight-hour miniseries described by the executive as a “big drama about a family that is torn apart when a child is slapped at a BBQ … this incident devolves all the way into an ugly court case.” The project is written by Jon Robin Baitz (Brothers & Sisters).

The drama’s official logline: “The Slap is a complex family drama that explodes from one small incident where a man slaps another couple’s misbehaving child. This seemingly minor domestic dispute pulls the family apart, begins to expose long-held secrets, and ignites a lawsuit that challenges the core American values of all who are pulled into it.” The Slap is based on a Australian project of the same name that aired in 2011.

NBC broke a lot of news at TCA on Sunday, here’s what you might have missed:

— NBC’s next live musical: Peter Pan

— Hannibal season 2 full creepy trailer

— NBC gives renewal odds on shows (Parks & Rec, Community, more)

— Two new pilots featuring Katherine Heigl and Amy Poehler