Cool News
Warner Bros. Orders Big-Screen Take On Stephen King's IT!!!
Beaks here...
At Warner Bros. nothing is unadaptable.
Undeterred by the mixed critical reception of WATCHMEN (we'll know more about the commercial reception come Saturday), WB is reportedly moving forward on a feature-length version of Stephen King's beloved, 1,138-page IT. According to The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit, the studio has hired the up-and-coming Dave Kajganich to write the screenplay - which, to the delight of King purists everywhere, will be set in the present day!
Exclusively? Kit's article doesn't say, but focusing entirely on one-half of the story - whilst consigning the rest to, presumably, spoken exposition or quick flashbacks - would greatly weaken the emotional impact of the book. It's a tough call. Though I think the novel could've done with some judicious editing, I don't know what you cut exactly. When Tommy Lee Wallace directed the novel for network TV, he basically jettisoned all of the "icky" stuff (e.g. the fuckin'). That, despite a nightmare-inducing performance from Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown, did not work. As a two-hour-plus feature film (unless they land a big-fish director, it's doubtful WB would let this run over 130 minutes), I think you've no choice but to completely reconfigure the material.
I'm not familiar with Kajganich's work (he wrote THE INVASION and Joel Schumacher's upcoming CREEK), so I've no idea if he's up to the task. I wish him the best of luck, though. There may be a great 130-page screenplay tucked away in IT. What do you think?
Readers Talkback
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I remember the mini-series on TV. The first half was one of the best damn things I ever saw on the tube. Then Harry Anderson showed up, followed by the giant spider. Damn!
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I'm ironic and foul mouthed... that's how I relate to this board. Aren't I clever?
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Is to make the kid's story into one movie and then make the second movie about them returning to face Pennywise as adults. They tried to do that with the TV version, but the budget and standards and practices let it down.
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Dark tower needs to see light of day. It's time
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His Pennywise was one of the creepiest things ever to grace a screen--small or silver. If they blow it by casting Pennywise poorly, they lose half the appeal.
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You got something to say to this prick, McG?
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That's just fuckin' great.
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oh well, first try for everything right? King's stuff has never translated too well to film. I think if there were a story that it could be attainable it is IT. However, I would not mind seeing a good Salem's Lot do over...again. Just give us the Tower
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It's in the bullpen, with Kristen Bell as Veronica? http://tinyurl.com/cxs3rc
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to have HBO or showtime make it into a REAL mini-series, so that all the details are left in. There are so many gut-wrenching things in the book. Razor blade teeth, gangster being destroyed, and etc. They should all be show to everyone who hasn't read this novel. and 1985 HAS to be the year.
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Frank Darabont is the only man I trust with King's work, he knows exactly where the focus needs to be, scary or not! I grew up with the TV movie, Curry terrified me, I can't say anything bad about it. I love it unabashedly. The only ONLY man who could make a solid IT film is the man who made Shawshank and Green Mile. And honestly, there's no reason not to at least CONSIDER Tim Curry to give it another go. I know it's unheard of to reuse actors for a re-imagining, but his Pennywise is the stuff of LEGEND (pun). A character screaming for a more visceral cinematic outlet. If anyone can think of anyone else who could even come close to that manic energy he brought to the character, I'd love to hear it. But Darabont, all the way, please God, Buddha, any of you...Satan! You owe me one!
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I love this book, the heart and soul of which is the story of them all growing up. And I don't think there is a page wasted in the book.
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"It all floats down here." Not only one of my favorite King books but one of my favorite books ever.
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My heart burns for this adaptation also.
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The best part of the book is when they are kids. It has to be in the movie. When you identify with the kids fear, that same fear is more real as an adult. For the characters and the audience. Hell the Greenmile was three hours, give IT the same respect!
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That would work very well. 13 parts perhaps? And yes, it HAS to be in the 50's-80's. Half of everything I know about America came from that book.
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After a thousand pages, a giant evil spider and a bunch of 11 year olds fucking. I'll pass.
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I remember reading chapters to my honors English class in 9th grade. I had them at the edge of their chairs.
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My opinion is that IT cannot be effectively translated from novel to screen. The end of the novel, as it moves back and forth between past and present, with It and the Loser's Club, and the Turtle... forget it. Start a 'Dark Tower' franchise instead.
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March 12, 2009, 10:25 p.m. CST
~~~WILL THERE BE CHILD SEX LIKE IN THE BOOK?~~~
by The Marquis de Side 3
Stephen King always freaked me out when it came to sex. It was always really perverted... the whole line the young boys form to have sex with the girl (and if you haven't read the book, no, it's ont rape) kinda makes me wonder what the heck it is King writes about. Please. Just give me over-the-top Jack Nicholson any day...
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What, is it about an office server that attacks the programmers during Prom night?
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that's all. monsters, yeah. kid sex, no. big fat no.
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March 12, 2009, 10:27 p.m. CST
well, I'm happy they're making more SK movies at least...
by The Amazing G
it seems like soon after Dreamcatcher (which sucked) Hollywood by and large lost interest in big budget Stephen King movies (1408 and The Mist, although great, were not exactly big budget)
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a redo of The Stand with Darabont at the helm, in a big mini series with a Lost style budget...I mean if Darabont did IT I would be thrilled (he's the only guy beside Rob Reiner who can FAITHFULLY adapt the material (which means Kubricks, as great as he is is out)and make it work) but just because The Stand is my favourite King book I want to see it rejigged as the Garris version is quite horrid for the most part.....plus, IT cant work as a small film. I just dont think it can....BUT, I say Paul Bettany for Pennywise :)
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is a mega-budgeted trilogy based on The Stand directed by none other than Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson, make it so...
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unless they make a 90 minute shlock horror about a clown killing teenagers.
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no thanks<p> read it<br> watched it<p> don't need no more it
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The man knows King, and while I personally loved the miniseries, this could be amazing if done right.
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they all float.
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don't ya WANT IT!?
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Or will they change the spider to a squid?
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if New Line wanted another cinematic trilogy ala LOTR then they should've done a trilogy based on The Stand, fuck that Golden Compass noise
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March 12, 2009, 10:32 p.m. CST
The end of IT was shit. like most of Kings later books.
by future help
But Kings first 7 books or so...were great reads the whole way through. I would still like to see the Stand done right...but even that is somewhat dated (with all the other Apocalyptic movies in the last 10 years.)
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<p>I loved the book, same as I love the majority of King's Tower-related stuff. The one thing that made me raise my eyebrows at the material, though, was how the girl had to have sex with ALL of the boys to find the way out of the underground tunnels. I mean, really. . .a pre-teen girl having 4 consecutive rounds of sex with young boys? That part just made me confused. It was how many hundreds of pages of great dramatic writing, and suddenly out of nowhere, it's HOLY COW, GRATUITOUS LOLI FAN SERVICE. Which was unnerving and odd. Great book though. </p> <p>And as for Dark Tower, I'm not sure how well that would translate to film. But then again, Jackson did it with LOTR, and Snyder kind of did it with Watchmen, so I suppose miracles can happen. The concept of watching a film version of Roland facing off against Cort, or Roland palavering with the Man in Black makes me shiver with anticipation.</p>
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It's the flashbacks that really hit with IT. Forget about it Warners. The fans will only hate it. You tried your best with Watchmen and I didn't like it. Despite the efforts of those involved.
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Greatest reading experience of my life was those 7 books. Devoured them in a month. Part of me never wants anyone to try, but another part of me realizes how amazing it would be if done right. Something that in the right hands could transcend the LOTR trilogy.
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Reiner did an excellent job with both Stand By Me (The Body) and Misery.
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<p>look for a "likeness thereof" version of the squid that "Watchmen" should've had. </P> <p>Goofed. Simply goofed.</p>
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Sorry. The "s" DOES make a diff'.
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I don't grasp the concept, or perhaps I just don't buy the idea that a 13 or whatever year old girl decides that they can remove their innocence -- after sending IT back into hiding or what not -- by laying down in the sewer and having ALL her friends screw her.<br /><br /> I really enjoyed the story, but that scene just sticks out as a editors note worth reviewing. Not that I'm a pro or anything. :)
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I agree with a previous comment that the ending wasn't very good, so I'm not concerned that the makers of this film remain faithful to that ending. Still, I think remaking IT is a fabulous idea. If only they could split it into two epic three-hour films. Maybe if Warners lands a major director they might have the confidence to do something like that.
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Especially some of the Pennywise hauntings, throughout the ages. The picture book where he moves through the stills, and then the ending would be blissfully Emmerich-esque in the way the town just sort of sinks into the Earth.
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It's a premium cable mini-series at best. There's no way they can do it justice in any shape as a major motion picture. And setting it in the present day -- which would bring the childhood segments from 1958 up to the 1980s -- would also ruin key elements. There is a certain kind of "childhood" that was very specific to the 1950s and I just don't think you can transplant that.
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I read a vampire book, NithBlood or Night Thirst, something like that.<p> Story was about a Vietnam vet, who was haunted by his dead brother.<br> Dead bro would show up and tell live bro about going ons in different places.<br> Live bro would then go and kill whatever the fuck was acting up.<br> The reason for these two doing this was, dead bro had been killed by something supernatural and couldn't pass on until it had been put down.<br> Live bro played along to get rid of dead bro (he never much liked dead bro).<p> Anyway live bro goes to this small town and thinks he takes out a vamp.<br> He'd killed what he thought were vamps a few times before.<br> But this one was different, it was a master / full vamp.<p> Great scene. Introduces a olde school monster to modern weaponry.<p> One word. Trauma.<p> He played connect the dots with automatic weapons on this thing.<br> Discombulated its head. Completly.<p> Without its head, live bro figured the sun would get it. (all the vamps he'd fought before were not full vamps, kinda stupid)<p> And the story took off from there.Br> A bit salem lotish, small town over run by vamps.<br> But different, and in some ways better.<p> Wish I could remember the title and author.<br> Even searched amazon and couldn't find it.<br> Need to go thru some of my old boxed up shit. pretty sure I still have it.
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One of our guest bloggers just wrote a whole thing on the right way to adapt It to a 2 hour movie. http://allthingsfangirl.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-adapt-it-properly-by-brendan-m.html
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...what I got from the scene was that their childhood connection was fading, and the only way to save it was to become connected in another way. I don't think it was as puerile as some of the talkbackers here are making it to have been. Not saying it didn't make me squirm a little, mind you. Just that I didn't write it off as gratuitous.
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They were made for each other. Huge mistake not allowing Darabont to direct this.
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Unless you're going for a solid two picture take- which would still be stupid- let some good pieces lay. TV proved that some King masterpieces are best left to our minds.
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One hit wonder my ass.
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DARABONTDARABONTDARABONTDARABONTDARABONTDARABONTDARABONTDARABONTDARABONT
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Don't do It!
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<p>back in the 80's then saw the mini-series with Tim Curry. Then I had to re-read the book just to remind myself that I LIKED the story. I was so disappointed in the tv version. (Although I did discover that Seth Green was in it, which is cool.)</p> <p>The Dark Tower can be done, but should be an on-going HBO series that lasts a couple of years to get through the entire saga.</p>
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...the appeal of Stephen King personally. Lots of descriptions of people going to the bathroom and crappy sex scenes does not make one a genius.<p>To be fair I've only ever read It and Pet Semetary, but I didn't like either. The only things I remember about It (20 years later) is a 2 page description of how some dude's pants were so tight you could see the veins in his scrotum and the 11 year old gangbang to defeat the evil spider-clown.
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That's the freakiest, creepiest, most frightening part. It's just plain fucked up.
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and if you don't agree your a racist
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...that I just hated on something that conventional wisdom tells me most people enjoy. I'm a real talkbacker now!
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Dark Tower all the way- could be the best series since LoTR
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email Harry, he'll send you the address to where you go to get the *special* nipple piercings
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But the TV movie sucked.
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full season show on HBO or Showtime. This is going to be the most miserable Stephen King adaptation yet-- and yes, I'm including Maximum Overdrive in that group.
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Pennywise now belongs to Tim Curry for eternity. No matter how many ways the feature may be superior (and I don't think there will be many) it will fall short because it won't be him. Plus Richard Thomas made an excellent Bill. The only thing that could pique my interest is if Seth Green was old enough to play the adult Richie. Since he's not... meh.
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esp that WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ending<p> Lost will have a dark tower ending combined with the retarted kid and snowglobe ending
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Thank you. I await the, I assume, many other perks of finally having my bonafides!
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a kinda disappointing read for me. Read it when it first came out. I haven't re-read IT since, (unlike a few other of his works). Had effective parts but didn't hit me in the gut like previous King works at the time. I'd love to see an abbriviated new film version of IT though. Could be cool.. could suck.. we shall see... ALSO, I so wish Clint Eastwood could go thru a time machine to star in a Dark Tower multi-film. Scared to think of the casting choices of a possible Tower film series. Younger Clint is the only one I think would be right. So, Tower's probably better left to the imagination of the reader.
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trying to retcon all his shit into a king 'verse.<br> every step in that direction diminishes his classic stuff
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Hell, movie studios are looking for solid projects. Start making King books like a motherfucker, you'll make a tidy profit EVERY time.
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I saw the movie one day at my friend's house on VHS after it was too hot to play street hockey. I was annoyed that I was sitting sitting in a house on a beautiful summer day watching some TV horror movie crap. Fast forward to a few hours later and I was blown away by how frightening this was for a TV movie. I seriously doubt that anything of this level of horror would make it on tv today. Tim Curry scared the crap out of me when I was 13. The book is huge and unless they drop things or split it into two separate movies, it won't work. Who ever plays Pennywise has big shoes to fill. I never read the book, but the story in general is great and if it is put into the right hands, we can have a whole new generation of Pennywise fans. YOU FLOAT TOO!!!
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Man, there's just tons of stuff that could be done.<p> The Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever series's><br> Now that would be cool news.<p> Starlins Metamorphosis Odyssey, The Price and DreadStar<br> That would be cool news.<p> A remake of It....<br> suk mah dik
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it was a giant fucking spider - a truly fucked up ending (a lot of his endings suck). all i ask is that they keep MICK GARRIS away from it
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Get Curry again...and if not, get Brad Dourif
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...Georgie reaches into the picture that has started moving and it slices up his fingers. It was a nice little detail that happened early on and drew me into the story.
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"Hey Georgie, want a fuckin' balloon? Fuckin' ass, they float. They all ah da da da da float like this down here!"
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"You want me to fuckin' go trash your deadlights? YOU WANT ME TO FUH-FUCKIN' TUH-TRASH 'EM!?"
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"my heart burns"... nice sub-reference to the book. Well done.
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I hope when this movie disappoints Stephen King writes a letter telling us to support the movie anyway and that Nick Cage was a better Pennywise than Tim Curry.
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a Robert R McCammon book? Boy's Life, Swan Song....Christ, C'mon! Or Peter Straub's The Throat?? But no. Remake *everything* on IMDB first.
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Swan Song = Low rent Stand. To hell with McCammon.
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The first half of the TV movie is GREAT!
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True that King's ending can be a little....not what you expected...random...especially the tower series. I really appreciated the insert in teh seventh book before Roland entered the Tower, King wrote to the reader dismissing his own ending. It was all about the journey. I appreciated that. Lost may do the same thing, I can see that. Look at Watchmen, love the book, for most of my life, I go see the new ending and it was the first time I had seen an adaption to a beloved work altered in the end drastically and I liked it. Get a good director, let him be true to the journey and write in his own ending? Why not, we could handle that? Same with IT, write in a new ending, screw it, we already know about the spider, let's see something different. An alternate version.
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Part of what was so cool was that the early part was set in the fifties. If the first part is set in the fifties, the kids are going to be going on seventy when they come back.
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The TV series was some of the freakiest shit I'd ever seen as a kid; the clown, the big friggin spider, the dude slitting his wrists in the tub....
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Me Too!
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scared the bejusus out of me as a kid. To this day I don't go near sewer grates at night. Now I haven't seen the tv movie in a decade but I remember it being great. The first half way better than the second but still good. People really don't like the two part tv version?
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March 12, 2009, 11:42 p.m. CST
What the fuck would they put in place of the spider?
by caruso_stalker217
I mean it might as well be a fucking spider, right? So just, you know, keep the spider but change it so Eddie is really an alien and there will be an awesome fight at the end.
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Maybe the Crimson King and tease some Tower shit, the way IT should have ended, duh?
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People don't like the miniseries because it is cheesy fucking ABC garbage with terrible acting and bad special effects. <p>I love it.
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the corn in the crap of the universe
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But it was definitely all about he kids. That aspect I think still holds up. Kings POV on adolescence has always been probably his strongest suit. It would be very foolish to ignore it.<br> That said, there's been a book. There's been a movie. Move along.
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I used to dig the TV movie when I was younger, tried to watch it a few years ago and it just didn't fly. Curry was great, the kids were all great, just felt like TV.
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John Boy
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March 12, 2009, 11:53 p.m. CST
I'm pretty sure the giant spider was not ITs true form
by Lovecraftfan
The closest anyone got to see his true form was the deadlights.
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There was a play on the spider in the tower series, subtle nod to IT. I'm telling you, the Crimson King, make a whacked out random ending hinting at The Gunslinger, I'm getting chills just thinking of it. Talk a ton about the turtle beam throughout the movie. It could be really sick.
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to be related to the thing from desperation<p> so it might not actually have a *true form*
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It's natural enemy is "The Turtle", another ancient Macroverse dweller who, eons ago, created our universe and possibly others. The Turtle shows up again in King's series The Dark Tower. The book suggests that It, along with the Turtle, are themselves creations of a separate, omnipotent creator referred to as "the Other". The Turtle and It are eternal enemies (creation versus consumption). It may in fact be either a twinner of or the actual one of the six greater demon elementals mentioned by Mia in The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah, as the Spider is not one of the Beam Guardians. It arrived in our world in a massive, cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact, in the place that would, in time, become Derry, Maine.
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pedestrian horror<p> It's scary for people who really don't want scary.<p> It's watter cooler scary.<br> Did ya read the latest king novel?<br> Finished it last night, wooooooo, scary.
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Give some examples of scary. I don't disagree, I don't dislike King, just curious what you think is scary literature?
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THAT could be scary. Either him, or a non-goofy Jim Carrey. Serious Carrey could be damned scary.
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now no gang bang in IT? Count me out!
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Anyway, anything is better than the godawful miniseries. They need to reboot almost all King movies, because 'salem's Lot, It, and Tommyknockers to name a few are all brilliant properties that were wasted. Christ, I remember actually storyboarding Bobbi Anderson's death scene in Tommyknockers when I was a kid.
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March 13, 2009, 12:33 a.m. CST
Also present day is fine, losing flashback structure is not
by reflecto
They have to keep both. Of course, look at King's last attempt to redo IT with Dreamcatcher with a similar premise. A fun book, but one of the worst films in recent years (in part due to its straight-faced King'isms - "Scooby-Dooby-Doo, we got some work to do now.") and it had the same essential kid flashbacks.
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March 13, 2009, 12:39 a.m. CST
That's this first bad review of the tv movie I've ever read.
by Royston Lodge
I was scared shitless by the IT tv movie. While viewer can be honest about its flaws, I've never really read a sincerely negative review of that project. It was what it was. It was certainly better than The Stand tv movie. IT works way better on tv than it would on the big screen. The fucking in IT really was tangental (sp?) to the story, much like the fucking in EVERY Stephen King novel. The gratuitous, adolescent-fantasy sex is one of the critical flaws of King's writing that is BEST removed from the movies! That, and the weird obsession with Satan and/or the occult that he inserts into his stories even when they don't fit with the rest of the plot AT ALL. Cujo was the WORST offender in that regard.
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and it works as a mini series...but it needs to be on hbo, to leave in the gore, which was cut out of the original<p> a movie is gonna cut way too much out
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Especially considering that many people LIKE the tv version of IT, there are several King books that are way more deserving of a silver-screen do-over than IT. Once again, Cujo comes to mind. That, and Christine. Not to mention Firestarter. Or Pet Sematary. THOSE are shit movies that DESERVE to be re-made!
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we want Roland. 'nuff said. =0)
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Since Salems Lot, which mid 70's was kinda scary, but today isn't.<p> Lovecrafts stories are both scary and creepy.<br> Lovecraft has really stood the test of time. <br> Must be the 4th or 5th generation that creeps out on his stuff. It's been so long that most of his stuff is in public domain.<p> Brian Lumley wrote some scary and creepy stuff. (more creepy than scary)<p> eeh, maybe my problem is me. I just don't *get it* any more.<p> The last King novel I enjoyed was Wizard and Glass and I've never really enjoyed any of the films or shows based on his works.<br> Didn't see the mist cos it had religious fanatics, so thats a pass for me<p> The book I mentioned up thread was scarier than Slaems Lot (similar theme).<p> F. Paul Wilsons, the keep and the tomb were both scary. I read he retconed the tomb to launch a repairman jack series so I don't know if it holds up.<p> It's all annie rices fault. she faggitized vampires and nothings been the same since.
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I agree with everything except Christine. Christine, except for the "talking radio" gag, is one of the best (if not the best) King adaptions of the 80s. Keith Gordon was note-perfect as Arnie, and it was pretty faithful. The biggest omission was the notion that car was haunted, rather than actually alive, but it didn't take away from the story at all. On a different note, have you ever actually read Cujo? That and Rose Madder are the worst he wrote under his own name (his worst overall being Roadwork) ; naturally it would make a shitty movie.
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he is about what good horror writers are always about<p> using the horror to describe the human condition<p> for example, the shining was about alcohol and child abuse
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And change the spider to a squid to make it more plausible.
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a tv movie...kinda explains the deterioration halway through...i read his creek script back in 06 (can't even remember the original name now) it was interesting enough...should be good enough to adapt king
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If not Tim Curry reprising the role, then Ben Kingsley or William Fichtner are the only other logical options.
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And make him Pennywise. <p> God, please make this so.
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was about substance and spousal abuse?<p> And here I thought it was about Cthulhu pussy
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instilling a sense of dread in your victims, err readers / watchers
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with just enough light to see the doorknob turning
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crickets. no wind. no traffic.<p> and for some reason the dog is missing
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I've tried reading Cujo on multiple occasions, but I've never been able to finish, due to abject boredom. There is precious little in that book about the friggin' DOG!
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...has got to be the one in The Body. Man, did that every take me out of the story. It came out of friggin' nowhere!!! At lease the sex scene in Apt Pupil adds a little disturbing flavour to the character of the fucked-up kid.
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Instead of trying to make epic stories into bite-sized movies or, worse, ABC/NBC/CBS-friendly shitfests, HBO should be opting the properties and making them into season-long miniseries. You could get adult themes, violence, profanity, and sex, and you could take 12 to 24 hours total running time to fucking develop it properly. It's the only way to honestly do justice to the source material and truly satisfy fans.
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00. Tim Curry <p> 01. Michael Wincott <p> 02. Vincent Gallo <p> 03. Christopher Lloyd <p> 04. Tommy Lee Jones <p> 05. Danny Huston <p> 06. Gene Wilder <p> 07. Gary Busy <p> 08. Benicio Del Toro <p> 09. Keiffer Sutherland <p> 10. Crispin Glover <p> 11. Gary Oldman <p> 12. John Malkovich <p> 13. Alan Rickman <p> 14. Michael Keaton <p> 15. Daniel Day Lewis <p> 16. Paul Rubens <p> 17. Mel Gibson <p> 18. Mark Hamill <p> 19. Tom Seizmore <p> 20. Robert Downey Jr. <p> 21. Brad Dourif <p> 22. Steve Buscemi <p> 23. Tom Hanks <p> 24. Johnny Depp <p> 25. Jim Carrey <p> 26. Nicholas Cage <p> 27. Willem Defoe <p> 28. Tim Robbins <p> 29. Dennis Leary <p> 30. Kevin Bacon <p> <p> ANY OF THESE TICKLE YOUR FANCY?
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Why is this guy considered up-and-coming? In terms of being a working writer, if he wrote (and got paid) for doing a major studio, big budget release like THE INVASION (with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig) shouldn't he qualify for the phrase he has "arrived"?<p>Then again, shouldn't he really be listed as "arrived and going down" given what utter shit THE INVASION was? And his follow-up script is with Joel Schumacher? I wonder how many rubber nipples and buttock zippers he had to work into that screenplay...
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Fuck You WB! Do Something New!<p> Not wallow in shit we already experienced.<p> Fuck Remakes
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01. Frank Darabont (of course) <p> 02. Adrian Lyne (PLEASE come back!) <p> 03. Mark Romanek <p> 04. Sam Mendes <p> 05. Joel Schumacher (Do recall this man did make Flatliners, The Lost Boys, Falling Down and 8MM.)
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My cousin and I were scared witless by this as kids and decided to watch it again as adults a couple years ago. It just didn't live up to our childhood. So we discussed a remake, and we both thought Tom Hanks would make the perfect Pennywise. The nicest guy in Hollywood and he's the right age now. He's got a disarming smile and attitude that could easily be twisted into a scary, freaky fucking killer clown. Plus, Tom Hanks involvement would almost guarantee the best care and talent in putting the script and production together.
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"Pennywise was a great clown... but that was another actor." DUN, DUUUN!
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Garbage.
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Flatliners, The Lost Boys, Falling Down and 8MM. Hmm: those are all terrible movies.
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March 13, 2009, 2:37 a.m. CST
If you want to keep the child sex look no further than
by The_Genteel_Gentile
Larry Clark (Not really though, please.) <p> I'm sure his more subdued kinsman Gus Van Sant could find a way for all the boys to take showers together and kiss. <p> Brian Singer would of couse NEVER do anything like that. <p> Ah oh, Victor Salva just rang, he wants in (actually that could work).
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I'm quite certain you never saw a one of those films. But if you did and that's your stance, then so be it. You do seem quite sure, so I'm not gonna try to persuade you otherwise. <p> God bless.
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Yeah man, thats what I was thinking too (in regards to Tom Hanks).
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that movie was so much different than anything out at the time. I remember it also pissed off a lot of people who thought they were walking into a popcorn action flick with a clearcut goodguy badguy theme and ended up having to think slightly about what they were watching.
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He's an IT maniac!
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But for me, I loved both - the Dark Tower and IT. For me, by the end Dark Tower became about the never ending cycle of story telling, and IT about the relationship between childhood and adulthood. Of course, I may be blindsided by my love for those books.
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that would scare the shit out of anyone.
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your brain couldnt process seeing mister rodgers eating a child
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The miniseries seems to have scared a whole generation of kids. I've read many many SK books, haven't read It yet. I'd rather see an HBO or Showtime Dark Tower Series. They could do Sopranos style. Make 10-15 episodes a year, some episodes from the books, some from new adventures along the way. The premiere would probably have to encompass most of the first two books. They could even start with the flashback from 'Wizards and Glass', or slowly reveal a little bit of characters' past every episode 'Lost' style. I don't need an It remake though.
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Stephen King should be shot<p> git off mah land, boy
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Whittle the book down to some lame under-developed characters and a few cheap scares. Add a big cg spider at the end so you have a trailer shot. Sit back and wonder why the film failed!
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is fucking amazing, one of the greatest tales ever, j j abrams better not fuck that one up Imagine how the doors and Blaine would look on the big screen, and the end is not a total right of, don't forget Roland has the horn of jericho this time.
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and the Gunslinger followed. I just want to see those words on a movie/tv screen or hear them in a voiceover before I die. Make it happen, please!
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Remake Salem's Lot first into 2hrs 30 mins - Paul Rudd as Ben, Ian McKellen as Straker, scary German guy as Barlow, Evan Rachel Wood as Susan, Quint as Mark Petrie, Bill Macy as Dr Jimmy. Peter Weir directing. Warners distributing. Budget $40m. Ah, thank you.
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Totally agree with you on CHRISTINE. That movie is a fucking classic and better than the book, in my opinion. <p>You lost me on "Roadwork" though. It's my favorite Bachman book.
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This news is horseshit. IT will not work as a 2 hour movie. My dream : a 3+ hour long cut directed by Peter Jackson...if only because he's the only filmmaker working who could get away with that runtime.
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A 3+ plus hourlong cut of THE TALISMAN.
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What the hell happened to Bruce Willis being involved somehow with Bag of Bones?
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IT is one of my all-time fave books, and while I've always wanted a really well done film, I don't know if it can happen. The TV movie has a special place in my heart as the first movie to ever give me chronic nightmares. But who knows... I'll wait and see. The present day setting is troubling tho. BRING BACK TIM CURRY!!!!!!
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Creepy shit. Remake entirely unnecessary, especially if it has constraints. Ridiculous.
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"The Dead Zone" is a criminally underrated movie.
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I'm new here. If it comes to a candidate for Pennywise what about Bruce Spence. He's a great actor, showed his comical skills in Mad Max and his scary side as Sauron's mouth has a unique and somehow odd face and is not too well known to not disappear into the role. (?)
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there is no point. Curry aside, the IT tv two-parter failed because because it was too short. Either give it ten hours on HBO or don't bother.
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Just a thought, he kinda has that clownish attitude down and i'd like to see him scare little kids, seen his eyes in the that movie 23 you'll be shitting bricks for years if they get him to do pennywise trust me on that one. Ahhh well i can dream. Clint eastwood is roland but he's knocking on abit now so get him to play rolands day.
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THe first one made Barlow into more of monster, which made the film scarier than the second. THe second had great production values and a wonderful seen of the Glick boy attacking in hospital.
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In fact, it was the best King adaptation made yet, perhaps with the exception of "The Shining" and "The Dead Zone". <p> <p> Maybe "the crisis" will break this project, fingers crossed.
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remember the big stupid looking spider? it was awful... like something out of a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!
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Are you daft? Clint Eastwood to play Stephen Deschain? I assume that is what you meant by "get him to play Roland's day". I am not precisely sure what age Roland's father was when he was killed, but I'm thinking early middle age. He sure as hell didn't make to to age 78 (thanks wikipedia).
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...turn into a giant puppet daddy longlegs at the end, maybe I'll give it a look when it's released.
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Gods that was an atrocious adaptation. There's a really good movie in that book, but somehow they couldn't find it, even with Ed freakin' Harris in the lead role.<p> As for IT, yeah, that's going to be tough to condense that much. I reckon it's going to suck.
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1.Carrie (to me the first and the best) 2.The Shinning (Kubrick version of course) 3. The Dead Zone 4. Creepshow 5. Salems' Lot (Tobe Hooper version) 6. Shawshank Redemption 7. The Mist 8. Stand By Me 9. It 10. Cujo
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SPIELBERG DOES KING!!! Either IT or The Stand. You know you WANT it!!!
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The book was amazing, the movie was garbage.
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That's one of the few Romero films I haven't seen.
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The mini-series was really good. Sure it could've used a better budget, but they did a tremendous job distilling the material.
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That part of the book is the best King ever wrote. So good that it even worked in the otherwise disapointing miniseries. I can live with a present day setting and childhood in the 70's but there have to be lots of flashbacks.
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the book is great up until one of those notorious King cop-out endings- I don't know where the fuck to take thsi thing so we'll have a magical amulet that will defeat evil.... for now! Crap.
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Thanks Melvin. I think you would like that movie the Mist if you like Lovecraft. Lovecraft stuff is so good because it has yet to be completely tainted by hollywood, although can't say I would not love a trip to The Mountains of Madness in the theater. I just wish these things were more consistent.
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Darabont needs to do "IT." That's all. There is no other director that will stay true to the original vision of the book. Too bad that they are doing this instead of say, Dark Tower.
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I agree that Frank Darabont is the only person who is up to adapting King's work. I like the idea of casting Crispin Glover for Pennywise. (I had really hoped they'd cast him for the Joker!) For this story to work as an adaptation you've got to have the childhood, but it can be done in flashback mode. I don't see this as a short movie or a popcorn movie, so they may as well go balls out with it. I can see the two movie idea working. It seems that these days, the studios with balls (Warner) are the ones getting all the big successes, and that is how it should be. Notice how all the other studios are shuffling the deck to try to emulate Warner? If you're going to make this movie, either do it right, or call it something else, like "Evil Clown" and then in the credits you can say "inspired by" blah blah blah. No "re-imagining" needed. King had and has all the imagination required for this story. You like the story, you think it would make a good movie, why not USE THE FUCKING STORY? Don't see dollar signs, just try to make the best adaptation you can of the book. To paraphrase "Field of Dreams..." If you film it, they will come.
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Heath Ledger was cool and deadly imo. And technically, he was more a psycho that wore makeup. That line from Tim/pennywise, "they all float, down here they all float" is still creepy as f*&_k. They should bring Tim back, but this is hollywood, so...
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Harken that to Wallace Shawn's "Incontheivable!"
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March 13, 2009, 8:26 a.m. CST
IT is about an ancient pre-Earth evil that grows throughout the
by A G
basically a metaphor for irational childhood fears.
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...anyone who wants a really good take on Lovecraft-ian works should check out John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness with Sam Neill and Jurgen Prochnow. Do it!
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Fuck that, Beaks, it absolutely worked. <p> If you haven't read the novel, that is. I can't speak for those that did.
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We just had one in Return of the King, Harry Potter, even Wild Wild West (and almost in the Superman movie, if you recall). Enough.
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i still refer to an event in my childhood as this IT chapter title.<p>what a great fucking book.
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I had a dream last night about It. About the book and the TV movie. I woke up contemplating whether this could be redone.<br><br>Nine-fucking-teen, indeed.
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There's the door. LEAVE. Giant spiders are creepy beyond belief. Besides, the thing in It wasn't a giant spider. It was a giant SPACE spider!!!
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The ending where the clown is actually a spider was a huge letdown. The ending needs to be rewritten to match the intensity of the rest of the story.
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Tim Curry was great in the TV show. But this book was a 500 page story crammed into a 1000 book. Cut cut and cut some more. You can cut 3 pages out alone if you jettison the child-porn sewer gangbang. I mentioned this to a friend who did NOT believe it was in the book. There is greatness in the book, but King said it was to be his last 'monster' book. Thus it suffered from all-you-can-eat overstuffing.
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this is a great book, I'd love to see those characters come to live. Swang Song is better than The Stand.
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Nice. McCammon's Swan Song was really something. However, I'd rather see "They Thirst" or "Hour of the Wolf", just cause I think the stories are smaller in scale and therefore more filmable. <p>Hopefully if Hyperion goes well, some of Dan Simmons' horror can get screentime as well.
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Dark Half is a good movie. It's not something that will blow you away, but it's definitely entertaining. Worth watching and cool.
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March 13, 2009, 10:24 a.m. CST
The Dark Tower...starring Jim Caviezel as Roland Deschain.
by Leafar the Lost
I personally don't like Caviezel, because he is a holy roller, right winger who wants embryonic stem cell research illegal. He must think he really is Jesus. HOWEVER, I have to admit that he would be a perfect for the role of Roland Deschain. I would rather that it be filmed as a 7 episode, 14 hour miniseries on HBO. I would actually get HBO to see it. Why not film seven movies for it, like the Harry Potter series? I read "IT" in high school, and it is a fucking masterpiece. I could not put it down. I kept reading it until I passed out, and when I woke up I started reading it again. It wasn't too long at all. If you are going to do it, do it right. The mini-series sucked. Even Tim Curry sucked.
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He did one great and one decent prison movie by King. What makes you think he"ll be able to adapt this? Of course I'm sure some Energy Drink Fueled fanboy will tell me about all of the underlying themes in those stories. And I"ll whisper "I don't care."
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That's all we need, the truncated, balls-less adaptation diminishing the novel that will invaribly result. There are so many other King properties that could be better 2-hour movies - hell, start with "Duma Key." A 2-hour IT won't be worth a damn. Now a two or three-part Stand a la LOTR could be awesome. But no studio's gonna go for it unless a passionate director with enough clout convinces one by citing The Stand's obvious similarities and comparable fanbase to LOTR.
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March 13, 2009, 10:46 a.m. CST
Hope Pennywise isn't revealed as a big spider in this one.
by riskebiz
Great scary clown movie that mini-series was ... until the big letdown/head-scratcher at the end where it was revealed it was a big spider from outer space. I seriously hope they revise that ending for this movie. Never read the book, but if it ended like that I'd throw the book across the room.
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The ABC version from 1990 had some creepy shit (NO ONE will ever top Tim Curry as Pennywise), but it GUTTED King's novel. A big screen version can't be over three hours like the miniseries, and the TV version was sketchy as hell. Do this fucker at 12 hours on HBO or forget it.
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The Dark Tower would be awesome when adapted right. After reading the ending I thought they should use the movies to tell the story with Roland actually having the horn - so instead of just butchering the books soo we all get pissed off you tell the new story hinted at in the end of the series. What about Guy Pearce for Roland - go back and check at Australian movie called the Proposition and tell me you don't think he could pull it off.
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as pennywise. lame and not scary but very hot, hot, hot. that movie and this remake are jokes from a sad clown. I did like the Mist though. scary religious lady drumming up fear, great ending.
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I can imagine him doing it with the accent he used for Fifth Element, except creepier. Maybe they would want someone younger, I don't know. Anyway, the novel is maybe King's most in-depth work, all the main characters are fleshed out so well, that's why it's twice as long as what the plot demanded. The history of the town of Derry, the fire at the Black Spot (god I loved that part, when Mike's dad is telling him about it, some of King's best writing EVER, you can't deny it!!) etc. NONE of that would make a movie. Hell, it didn't even make the series. A HBO series of 6 hours would be the best bet. However, it CAN be made into a movie, just keep all the really key parts. How they all get together as kids, building the dam, the rock fight and everything, the house on Neibolt Street (that name doesn't sound right, it's been a while...). It needs to be a hard R with a sick-as-fuck leper coming after Ben, a really frightening werewolf, Pennywise being genuinely scary (like he was in the series). The part with them as kids is the best.
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I would love to see the part at the canal near the start of the book where these guys are bullying a gay couple who've just come out of a nightclub, and one of them is dragged into the canal, then they look up and the clown is just standing there staring in the dark with the balloons, it would be a great way to start the film and set a DARK tone. They don't even need to do the part where Bill's little brother sees Pennywise in the drain because everyone knows that so well from the series.
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Lost girl in the wilderness, no dialogue. That would be interesting.
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And Tim Curry was simply brilliant as Pennywise (gett him for this, don't think, don't cast, don't try and get Depp, get Curry or don't bother...Curry is a genius as stuff like this, I think he completely defined Pennywise beyond King's creation). Like most King mini-series, it's either very good or moderately good and then the ending sucks giant donkey ass in hell. The Stand, The Langoliers, IT all great mini-series with either cheesy or just shitty endings.<p>The ending of IT is some of King's best 'early-middle years' work but how do you put that to the screen? There is no way any studio will put the Turtle in the flick...it is not unlike the squid but the squid is do-able, the Turtle is something more...profound talent would be needed to get this done right...and yes the only director who's demonstrated this talent and willingness is Frank Darabont. But even then, how long is this thing gonna be? 2 parting it is a good idea otherwise it's unfilmable as a single movie (not without gutting it to the point of making it unrecognizable, etc)
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I'll check it out. When I was coming up with my list a few posts back, that was one King movie I realised I haven't seen, which is weird because I like King and Romero. If it's a solid little thriller, that's okay in my book.
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Have enough trouble getting the 2 hr. film treatment, let alone something that is over 1,000 pages!
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This is my favorite King novel and I have yet to see it faithfully adapted. The 70's version has its charm and hits some good notes. The '04 version as well has great moments and a good overall tone, but the modernizing and overall tweaking of the main character (and making the teacher into a goddamn black homosexual... huh?), as well as combination of multiple characters into composites (which was also done in the original and has been something that many King adaptations have suffered from) ultimately ruin it. That and the fucking new bookend that they wrapped the story in. God... I would really fucking love a faithful adaptation of Salem's Lot.
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It still kills me that people dismiss the ending of the mini-series as merely a "giant spider" It was not a giant spider! The mini probably didn't spell it out enough, but the clue was there - Bill says "Show yourself." Pennywise mocks him and says "Silly boy. You still think you can see me. You'll never see me. You'll see only what your little mind can allow. Go! Now. For if you stay, you'll lose your little mind in my deadlights." It's true form is the deadlights; the Losers' processed this info into something their minds could comprehend - i.e. a cheesy looking spider. Removing all references to the ritual of Chud was the mistake there.
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that they were adapting The Talisman. That and The Stand are my favorite King "road trip" books, even though it was cowritten by Straub.
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March 13, 2009, 12:24 p.m. CST
Ideas for ending, for Pennywise, and the junior high orgy...
by Royston Lodge
1) Instead of a giant spider, the ending should feature a big, grainy, only-seen-in-segments, quickly-edited, vaguely-insectoid, Cloverfield-style, Lovecraft-hued, ancient-primordial-visceral-hallucinatory, evil, "creature of some sort". Then, after the movie premieres, all the geeks can flood the talkbacks to debate what the heck the creature actually was. ("I'm telling you it was just a spider!" "No way, it was definitely Cthulu!" "You're both wrong, it was the Cloverfield monster's mommy!") That would be great viral marketing for the flick, and would encourage geeks to go pay another $10 to see it a second time. 2) I like the idea of a wholesome nice guy playing Pennywise. Tom Hanks is an inspired choice. If he wouldn't do it (or if he's charge too much for his services) you could also go with Steve Martin, or Alec Baldwin, or Joseph Fiennes, or John C Reilly, or Matt Damon, or Scott Wolf, or Chris O'Donnell. Under the make-up, and with a performance done with requisite subtlety, all those actors could be really, really creepy. I'd also suggest Michael Emerson, even though he doesn't fit into the "nice guy" mould. 3) The junior high orgy really ups the level of seriously awkward discomfort when the characters meet up again as adults. In the TV movie they're just uncomfortable and awkward because they don't want to relive their encounter with Pennywise, and that didn't quite seem natural. So I can see the value of including the orgy in a movie because it would add a whole different dimension to how they deal with each other as adults. But that would be pretty hard to pull off with any level of sensitivity, and would certainly give such a movie an NC-17 rating.
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...cut out the giant squid, it should be fine.
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So we get a chance to see The Dark Tower. OMFG, imagine this does well, then WB pulls a Marvel franchise, and starts filming the major influences in The Dark Tower, Insomnia, and Salem's Lot. Damn, I just want The Dark Tower. If Harry Potter can be a successful 7 book series in film, then why not The Dark Tower????
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that is exactly what I thought to do with the ending, who knows how many times Roland has done this journey, make the movie as if its the next time after the book, keep alluding to the fact he now has the horn so fans notice<p> i like to think that Gan? is getting Roland to rebuild a new beam each time or something<p> i just can't accept that the poor bastard will never get to meet Susan at the clearing at the end of the path<p>
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The TV movie was classic. Any movie where balloons full of blood pop in peoples faces is alright with me.
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just go to boxofficemojo to see it by yourself.AHAHAHAHA
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his horror movies are all shitty. the shining is great because of kubrick. it was a deviation from the book. and when they try a more faithful adaptation, what happened...? more shit happened, that's what. <p> give me more shawshank and less horror.
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That idea is genius.
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The most unintentionally funny line from the original. After my wife and I saw it together, I used to say that line her sometimes when we'd start kissing, lol.
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...(lol) and let Frank Darabont do a LotR style 2 or 3 part adaptation of The Stand. Also, let (read: force) Damon Lindelof to write the screenplay for the Dark Tower flicks.
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The best version of a King story involving kids was STAND BY ME. The kids were believable. The kids in the TV mini 'IT' were not, but they were miles above their adult counterparts in that series.Richie, the DJ or whatever, was stupid in the book and in the mini. There are elements in the book that are just plain godawful cheese. That being said, you could make a decent movie if you have a director/script in place that knows WHAT to film. For me, the stuff that always stood out in IT was the use of the classic Universal monsters in the book, and the fact that they were killing these children. The 'Richie' parts were painfully contrived. As for Mick Garris-faithful? Yes. Good? No. His last one, 'RIDING THE BULLET' was unwatchable. Kings movies are best when they are not directed by some gushing fanboy. The work best when you get an impartial director who makes a good film and not a by-the-numbers King adaptation. As for THE DARK TOWER, I made it to book 4 WIZARD and GLASS. That was my turning point. That book was simply too tedious to endure, but I soldiered on, hoping it would get better, but no such luck. After getting burned on that one, I never read another Dark Tower book, and broke my record of having read every King Book.
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i think they should keep the subtext about the turtle and spider, do up the macroverse, thatd be pretty amazing. alot of shit could have been cut from the book. the adrian melon killing, the flashbacks into the sprees, etc. they should just one cut where mike reviews the stories, or brings them up and thats it. great story, but it could do with alot, ALOT of editing down. after a while the kid killings actual manage to get redundant.
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you want it to come out even more convoluted and wrong than LOST has since the season after the Looking Glass episode (last time the series was good). I daresay that the Dark Tower is the only thing left for a director to tackle of King's material. From a Buick 8? Christine with an interdimensional car. Cell? Christine with a cellphone. Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon? A girl who hallucinates her favorite baseball player to stay alive in the woods. Insomnia? King himself didn't like it. Rose Madder? Nobody cared then and nobody will care now! The Dark Tower is IT, baby!
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would be a fucking amazing thriller if it was set up like a play, ya dig?
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Just wouldn't gel. A woman tied to a bed for an hour and a half would never work as a film, not even a porno. She'd have gotten her rocks off in thirty.
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but don't fucking touch The Stand!
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guess I'm not going to like this one.
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...if they cut out the space cowboy shit.
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Starring Tom Hanks as Pennywise. Yeah I'd watch that, even with the typical poorly done Spileberg 3rd act and obligatory happy ending. Actually maybe they can get George Lucas to direct it and we can have Ahmed Best play Pennywise!
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We want the dark tower now. Casting ideas anyone?
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Didn't make it to the filmed version.
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Consist of Pennywise executing all the main characters, then trying to kill himself, just to find out there's no more bullets, then a tank will roll up and squish him. Fuck darabont.
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...was the best movie ending in all of 2007. YOU ALL FUCKING KNOW IT
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As a huge King fan with great love for the book, I’m nauseous at this news. The old mini-series was pedestrian at best. This smells like a studio trying to pump another King property for profit rather than someone with love for the book attempting to realize it. If this had been someone like Richard Kelly, a vocal fan of the book, finally getting a greenlight it’d be a different story.<p>Moving the action to present day and the 80s is wrong-headed. So much of the book’s flavor comes from King’s imbued nostalgia from his childhood with its music being the pulsing heart. World culture was different in the 50s. There wasn’t video porn, memories of Vietnam and Watergate, or a fifty percent divorce rate. Pennywise, to some degree, is the savage underbelly of the repressed 50s.<p>At this point, since they've only commissioned a script, I hope the project falls apart. Let someone with great love for the material get a chance.<p>Side note: Why are you folks so fixated on the sewer sex scene? Yeah, the ending sucks but the first 1000 pages are great. Favorite scene: Bev’s old house turns into an evil gingerbread house. The creepy visions in the smoke hole. The opening scene where Georgie gets his arm ripped off. Mike wakes up in the library and the balloon pops in front of him. It can be so compulsively negative around here. Personally, I think multiple actors could play It/Pennywise. The shifting nature of It’s identity is part of the creep factor. The ending needs to change so you never see It’s true form. King learned his lesson by Desperation; you don’t see Tak’s true form.
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When I first read it, when the little kid is being strangled by the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and even as he's dying he's feeling for a zipper or something. I thought to myself, "What a badass little kid. Sucks he goes out like that." And I teared up a little bit. C'mon, I was 13 or something, give me a break.
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I, too, read this when I was around 13 or so. I remember being depressed for a few days after finishing it up, so invested was I in these characters. Anyway, huge King Fan, huge IT (book) fan. The mini-series was half-inspired, half-crap, with the parts from when they were kids being far and away the best. Reading all these talkbacks, I must be the only one who thought Tim Curry sucked balls as Pennywise. Okay, maybe he didn't suck balls, but he certainly licked them. Sounds like most folks posting up above, though, were a little younger than I was when the mini-series came out, so maybe that accounts for the difference in the creep out factor. Like I said, I liked parts of the mini-series, but overall it suffered from the dreaded low-budget-itis. That's the main reason the ending with the spider sucked so bad. It looked RIDICULOUS. I thought it was riveting in the book, they just didn't have the money or technology to realize it in a made-for-network-tv translation. I'd love to see it re-done, though not necessarily as a 2-3 hr feature; i just don't think they could do it justice. As for pennywise; Gary Oldman is pretty inspired. What about Clive Owen. Even better: Jackie Earle Haley. And you heard it here first, they'll probably get Dakota Fanning for Beverly, for better or worse. Meanwhile, I'm all over a new take on The Stand, and even moreso for a faithfully adapted Talisman. DT goes without saying, but pretty much all of those have to be either Pay cable mini-series or multi-movie series...
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Darabount could probably do this one justice. I say do what Kubrick did with "The Shining" and make something entirely new with the story. I'm not going to be shocked by this thing any other way.
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Well, I gotta say, I thought that the adult crew had such great chemistry together that by the end, I didn't really care that the spider was hokey. I was too invested the characters to really care. But then I've always had a touch of the Stendahl Syndrome. Spaghetti Eddie Forever!!!!
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March 13, 2009, 6:13 p.m. CST
lemonfan - I dig the choice of Bruce Spence for Pennywise.
by The_Genteel_Gentile
Good call. He would definitely work.
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You guys don't get it. A spider is the obvious, quick and easy choice for an image a desperate killer would hide behind for scaring kiddies. Trying to make it extra scary only made it less convincing to the kids, which made them a bit braver when facing Pennywise...
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March 13, 2009, 6:59 p.m. CST
IT was one of the scariest things I have ever seen on...
by emeraldboy
TV. The bits that scared me the most were the scene with the sewer. and the seen with the boat and that skeleton rising from the Pond. Theat bit with the sewer had me all but yelling at the tv get away from sewer. that was tim currys best performance. they way he lured the kid with the balloon is just chilling.
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Night sky by turning that it ET. I cannot see the berg doing another Horror. if the berg does make this. Firstly he should apologies to rick baker and when he has done that. do it.
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ROLAND DESCHAIN OF GILEAD
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For years I've been bitching about the Wallace TV movie and how it (and all those other 90's King TV movie "events") missed the heart of the story and just generally looked like shit and cried out for theatrical remake, and now it kinda happens, and I'm fucking at a loss for how to feel here. <p> Beaks says that he thinks there's a 130 page screenplay in IT, and while I'm not 100% sure of how 130 pages breaks down in terms of run-time, I would like to imagine that there has to be a way to condense that story without losing any of the essential. <p> But what, exactly, is essential about IT? Is IT essentially just a story of a shape-shifting child-killing bogeyman that occasionally looks like a clown and a spider? Is it an examination of cultural violence, specifically violence against children? What role do minorities play? Is that essential to the story? <p> That all sounds like shit and I'm sorry to you all for having read it, but I'm not going to just backspace over it for some reason. The case stands. <p> I hope that what's-his-name guy is up to task of absorbing a story that functions on at least a few levels beyond creepy clowns and spiders, and regurgitating a screenplay that maintains a feeling of generational violence, with a very defined sense of location and history, exhibiting both slight humor and immense horror, sometimes on the same page.
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How about someone actually developing the story Hearts In Atlantis, instead of doing Low Men In Yellow Coats and calling it Hearts In Atlantis in some sort of shitty bid for product tie-in brand recognition or something? <p> I'd be very cool with that, but would they have to call it something else?
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March 13, 2009, 8:03 p.m. CST
BTW, having a point > the irony...
by FatherMcGruderKicksAssForTheLord
of saying you're speechless and then rambling. <p> -SMOKE MORE- or -SMOKE LESS- before posting? Discuss.
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One of the biggest disappointments of the 1990 version was that other than Teenage Werewolf,none of the other movie monsters was represented from the book.I could never figure why Universal never optioned this,considering It,the novel,featured most of their classic monsters,from Frankenstein's monster to Jaws.Be nice to see the original makeups actually being frightening on screen again rather than being used only on packages to sell cupcakes & candy on Halloween.Hopefully Warners will try to license the likenesses from Universal for this.
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Zack Snyder to direct and give the fans what they wanted . . . in that "other" movie.
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Stephen Root - would have a John Wayne Gacy edge, and could handle the creepy friendly to terrifying swing with his acting chops. Christopher Walken - They all... float. Nicholson - Gacy meets the Joker meets Jack Torrence. Bill Hader from SNL - A younger Pennywise, but Hader has range. Zack Quinto - Syler, Spock, Pennywise; a pop culture trifecta. BTW. I loved the Michael Emmerson idea.
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YOUR OLD UNCLE YIMMY!!!
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Ideas for casting It/Pennywise: Doug Jones, Ryan Gosling, Ben Foster, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Steve Railsback, John Jarratt, and a real out there choice Marc Maron. I think a lesser known actor is the way to go so people see a scary monster rather than a movie star.
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I greatly appreciate your grammatically correct and intelligently worded posts. Sincerely.
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Rule of thumb: 1 page = 1 minute of screen time.
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He got a lot more screentime in the T.V. version I'm guessing because it would've been cheaper than having a bunch of different monsters and shit and also so there would be more of an actual villain to relate to.
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when it comes to stephen king. i've read quite a few of his books (and i'm not even a horror fan of any kind--movies or books), but i usually feel disappointed or cheated by his endings. he's a master at sucking you in with great premises, but just lousy at delivering the knockout punch. <p>a killer dog that terrorizes the neighbor hood, a demon possessed sherriff, a crazy fan who kidnaps her favorite writer, a living car obsessed with its owner--all original and fantastic premises. he sucks you in early and then leaves you hanging. i could go on and on about what's good and bad about king, but i pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. curry was great as pennywise and there is no way the book can be condensed into a standard movie format unless the director does what Kubrick did and just uses the source material as loose guidelines to create something very different from the book.
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when's someone gonna write something where a giant boll weevil or banana slug tries to take over the world.
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That's just an awful idea. Kristen Bell or no Kristen Bell.
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...Just focus on the second half of the story. That way, you have the exellent first half of the miniseries and can conclude it with something better than the lack lustre second half. You know, why even bother with IT or The Stand. You can't do it. Unless you make it multiple films. Why not just force King to give up the rights to The Running Man and The Long Walk?
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...Can you imagine Stand By Me in a present day setting? King was a kid in the 50's. Thats the period he understands. Thats where he can offer the most details and authenticity. And the more authentic and genuine it feels, the easier it is for people of any age to relate to it. Update it, unless you have a writer who makes the story wholly his own, you lose the very stuff that makes the story worth telling. The more straight and accurate an adaptation of Kings work you do, the better the film seems to be. Just fucking stick to the book, or don't bother. God damn, just do The Running Man already.
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March 14, 2009, 3:55 a.m. CST
IT the novel scared the living hell outta me, but...
by Motoko Kusanagi
...the tv movie was totally fucking boring and laughable. So why not remake this crap?
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Fucked up, yes, but still one creepy fuckin novel. And while yes, Darabont would be prime for the job, Rob Reiner, as someone else mentioned, has made two of the best King adaptations, Misery, and Stand By Me. <p> Its funny how most people say King's work sucks translated on the big screen, and while he sure has many failures, the ones that hit the mark are classics. Carrie, Misery, The Shining, Shawshank, The Green Mile, Creepshow, Stand By Me, Salems Lot, heck even Christine was kinda cool. Thats a handful of great films right there.
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And of course the brilliance that was The Mist.
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If DT is ever made I hope they get a better actor than Stephen King to play Stephen King.
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IT was the first King book I read, and opened my eyes up to the ideas of the Macroverse and how tiny we really are, a concept that I loved and thought that King explored brilliantly. It also went into great detail about childhood and growing up and really was such an epic novel. Watchmen has its own level of detail and as far as I'm concerned there was a reasonable amount of that depth converted in the movie. I believe with the right man at the helm (Darabont, plz) the same thing can be done whilst keeping most of the crucial detail, although running time has to be taken seriously. Tim Curry terrified me as Pennywise. On subsequent readings of the book he was the clown in my head. I had nightmares for 2 years straight after seeing that movie, and as odd as it sounds, I want that experience again. I want to be terrified like that again, and only Tim Curry can do that IMO. John Jarrat would be a great choice too, but not getting Tim would be a seriously bad move. If they get someone devoted to the material (DARABONT) and keep the depth with the childhood and the eggshell existence, then I'll be happy. If they get Tim I'll be ecstatic. But if I get my balloon then that's the icing on the cake.
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...translated to screen (and let me know if you're with me on this) is that his horror stuff simply isn't taken seriously by the studios. When he writes a story like Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, or The Body (turned into Stand By Me) or The Green Mile, studios treat his work with the reverence it deserves. On the other side of the coin, his horror stuff just isn't taken as seriously. And believe me, some of his straight horror is as nuanced and powerful as his Stand By Mes and his Deloris Claibornes.
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It better be after we've invented the time machine, because the only person I could ever see playing Roland is a young Clint. Or maybe that dude who played Rorschach (because he looks like well, a young Clint)
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On this frikkin' planet that It would work as a 130 minute movie. They would have to leave out so much exposotion that it would make the whole thing a pointless waste of time. The only way that this would work would be for HBO to pick it up and make it a big budget mini series. This is probably my favourite King book and the first one of his that I ever read so I hate to say it but I feel more attatchment with this book then probably any other. And, for the love of christ leave The Dark Tower alone. We need a big screen version of that like Obama needs Bush
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Wasn't that a big plot point in the novel? The girl has sex with all the male friends so they can build an emotional bond to fight the spider creature? I've tried that line on a few girls over the years. Never worked.
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Nobody.
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I have idea for the shortest review ever... just add the letters SH in front of the title... eh i'll get my hat.
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Excuse me, the miniseries "did not work"?!? According to who? You? It worked perfectly for a difficult overwritten story. This story will be ruined without both time periods. But I'm sure that's not your concern, as long as children are being killed. Gotta love torture porn losers.
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the book is excellent, a bid reason why s because it was so fleshed out, the history of the town, the back-story of the kids, King spared no expense in telling the story, the made for TV movie however ditched all of that and it sucked. What needs to be done is they need to make more King miniseries, but this time give them big budgets and put them on either HBO or Showtime
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whoopsie
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NQCsCUY <a href="http://oiipvl.com/ ">uNmica</a>
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