IT || Rewind back to 2009 and that is when Warner Bros. Pictures announced that they would be doing another adaptation of Stephen King’s novel It. Now, here we are in 2017, and we have our first trailer for what will be the first of two films about the small-town of Derry and the evil incarnated in the form of Pennywise the Clown. Originally slated to direct was Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre & Beasts Of No Nation) who you may know as the director of all eight episodes of the first season of the 2014 HBO TV series True Detective, but after clashing creatively with the studio, director Andres Muschietti (Mama) was brought on to make this his sophomore horror outing. Some of Fukunaga’s screenplay must have remained intact however, as he is still honored with a co-writing credit.
The first of the two films will follow the Losers’ Club as kids, as they are forced to deal with the child disappearances in their small-town of Derry, Maine and to face the evil incarnate that has invested the town for centuries. As with the Tim Curry version of Pennywise from the 1990 TV miniseries It, Bill Skarsgård (Anna Karenina) takes on the form of the clown living in the gutters. Skarsgård’s clown is said to be somewhere between Heath Ledger’s Joker and Tim Curry’s original incarnation. Apparently when Fukunaga was attached as director, Will Poulter (The Maze Runner & The Revenant) was set to play Pennywise and was said to have “blown away” in his audition. Honoring the themes of Stephen King’s original novel, the second of the films will fastforward to the Losers’ Club being grown up and looking to take on the evil clown.
With Netflix’s Stranger Things reaching critical acclaim, a horror/sci-fi series involving kids dealing with extraordinary circumstances, there is absolutely no better time for It to be coming to theaters. Coincidentally enough, Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard finds a co-starring role in this film as well, with Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special & St. Vincent) taking on the lead child role. Whereas Nightmare On Elm Street saw its evil incarnate Freddy Krueger killing pre-teens when they fall asleep as revenge from some past evil, It focuses on a much younger child dealing with an even more extreme, more ancient type of evil. Personally unsettled by clowns at a very young age thanks to Stephen King, I am ready for a whole new generation of children to grow up fearing clowns.
Release Date: September 8, 2017
Directed By: Andres Muschietti
Studio: New Line Cinema
