*Variety is reporting that rapper Pras Michel has optioned film and TV rights to "Dark Oz," a comic book trilogy based on Frank L. Baum's "Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

       Originally published by Caliber Comics, the storyline follows an older Dorothy Gale in a "gothic and more macabre" setting as she journeys through Oz with the Tin Man, Lion and Scarecrow, to be played by Pras himself. The former Fugees member intends to produce the project as three separate films.

       The screenplay was adapted from the work of original comic creators Aaron Denenberg, Ralph Griffith and Stuart Kerr, with plans to begin production at the end of this year.

       In the meantime, Michel produced the upcoming release "The Mutant Chronicles" with John Malkovich and Thomas Jane, and the 2007 documentary on homelessness, "Skid Row," in which Michel lived as a homeless man in Los Angeles for nine days.