In 1977, Motown had acquired the film rights to the Broadway play "The Wiz", an African-American reinterpretation of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". The film initially was to include the stage actors who had performed on the play, but, producer Rob Cohen could not garner the interest of any major Hollywood film studios. It was not until Ross convinced Cohen to cast her (instead of Stephanie Mills, who portrayed Dorothy on Broadway) as Dorothy that Universal Pictures agreed to finance the production. This casting decision led to a change in the film's script, in which Dorothy went from a schoolgirl to a schoolteacher. The role of the Scarecrow, also performed by someone else onstage, was eventually given to Ross's former Motown labelmate, Michael Jackson. Ross and Jackson had a modest dance hit with their recording for the film of "Ease on Down the Road". Their second duet, actually as part of the ensemble of "The Wiz", "Brand New Day", found some success overseas.