It’s been an Oz filled year of news already and we’re not going to stop hearing about the ever-growing franchise for a while to come. With no less than four projects on the horizon involving the magical land (Dorothy of Oz, Oz The Great and Powerful, Wicked, and the rumored remake Oz from the Polish brothers), the property is surely getting a lot of attention and all eyes are on them as we wait anxiously to see what each of them brings to the table.

According to the ever-active Production Weekly Twitter, the prequel, Oz The Great and Powerful, is set to begin filming next June with a recently attached Robert Downey Jr. Having set a start date, one has to wonder just who they have on board that will be ready in that amount of time to direct the film, the most likely choice being Sam Raimi. After being unceremoniously booted from the Spider-Man franchise, Raimi was first believed to be jumping right into World of Warcraft, but instead his involvement with Oz The Great and Powerful seemed to increase until he recently reported that he wasn’t yet tied to the film, but that he would like to be.

The announcement is sure to get the internet buzzing about who will actually helm the film, be it Sam Raimi or someone else (Timur Bekmambetov and Sam Mendes have both at one point been rumored). So let the producers have their fun making us wait and in time they will reveal what seems to be secret info about the crew.