LOS ANGELES (AP) – No dancing down the yellow brick road for Zooey Deschanel, star of Sci Fi Channel’s Emerald City adaptation, “Tin Man.” And no warbling “Over the Rainbow” a la Judy Garland.

“It’s postmodern, more like Indiana Jones than a fairy tale,” said Deschanel, whose Dorothy is a waitress called DG.

Based on L. Frank Baum’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” which inspired the 1939 film classic, Sci Fi’s six-hour “Tin Man” is not a musical but a special effects-driven fantasy.

“It’s a coming-of-age story,” Deschanel said of the miniseries airing Dec. 2 through Dec. 4.

“Here’s DG acting out in a teenage way before she gets swept up by the storm,” the actress said of her character’s ride to the alternate universe of the O.Z., or Outer Zone, on the tail of a tornado. “Then she’s forced to grow up a little bit…”

Fans will recognize the scarecrow in zipper-headed Glitch (Alan Cumming), the lion in the wolverine-human psychic, Raw (Raoul Trujillo), and Dorothy’s dog in the shape-shifter, Toto (Blu Mankuma). There’s a wizard of sorts in Richard Dreyfuss’ Mystic Man. And the title character, ex-cop Wyatt Cain (Neal McDonough), called a tin man for his tin badge, is far more embittered than Jack Haley’s metal man. And the evil sorceress (Kathleen Robertson) gets more screen time than her predecessor.

Margaret Hamilton’s cackling Wicked Witch of the West, did in the Garland film.

“It’s a very daunting prospect when you’re asked to play one of the most iconic film villainesses in history,” Robertson said. “As opposed to playing Azkadellia archetypal and loud, I played her internal and psychological. She’s narcissistic. She has every personality disorder that you can figure.”

Although “Tin Man” is loaded with computer-generated creatures and settings, “most of the sets in Azkadellia’s world were real,” Robertson said.

“I didn’t do a lot of green screen,” she said of acting in front of plain backgrounds that are digitally completed in post-production. “I didn’t have to imagine what her world was like.”

Robertson also snagged the most glamorous wardrobe in “Tin Man,” a clutch of sharply cut gowns with sinuous curves. Her necklines plunge to reveal chest tattoos that morph into flying Mobats, or monkey bats, which do Azkadellia’s bidding.

“You can’t be in those costumes and speak casually,” Robertson said. “Something our director, Nick Willing, told us was that in the massive, epic world of “Tin Man,’ you can’t be quiet and small. There has to be ferocity or you’ll disappear.

“So I deepened my voice a little. My performance was slightly stylized and elevated. Whereas Zooey’s character is the opposite. She’s the one character in the piece where you think, “Oh, that could be me.”‘

It was this normal aura that clinched Deschanel’s casting as DG. “I couldn’t find anybody else who’s so innocent, with eyes so wide open,” Halmi said.

Wide-eyed or no, Deschanel didn’t want to reprise Garland’s pigtailed Dorothy in “Tin Man.”

“That was such an incredible performance that there’s no need to repeat it,” she said. “I wanted to make this role my own.”

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AP-ES-11-23-07 1438EST