Hey guys! Horrorella here...
A theatrical adaptation of Stephen King's IT has been in the works for some time, but now looks to be closer than ever to actually going before the camera. In a recent interview with Vulture, producer Dan Lin revealed a bit about the film's projected timeline and plans.
TRUE DETECTIVE director Cary Fukunaga is still on board to direct, and the plan is to go into pre-production in the spring, eyeing a shoot later this summer.
“The idea is to start official prep in March for a summer shoot,” said Lin. “Cary likes to develop things for a while, and we’ve been with this for about three or four years, so we’re super excited that he stayed with it. You guys are gonna be really excited.”
Additionally, it sounds like they are going to give IT the full treatment, and break the enormous, 1,000 page book into two films.
"The book is so epic that we couldn’t tell it all in one movie and service the characters with enough depth,” explained Lin.
IT isn't as dense as something like THE STAND (which is currently looking at 4 whopping four-film adaptation), but it has enough going on that a mere 2-hour runtime certainly wouldn't be enough to do the story justice. I'm happy to see that it will be taking its time, and allow us to fully connect with the characters.
If you are unfamiliar with the source material, IT tells the story of a group of kids who discover and battle an evil entity that has taken on the guise of an evil clown and stalks the town of Derry, Maine, feeding on its children. They defeat it once, and then have to band together again as adults when it returns.
The story was famously adapted into a television mini-series in 1990, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and starring the ever-fantastic Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown. And while that adaptation is certainly memorable and worth watching, and Curry's performance is the stuff of legend (and nightmare), there is plenty of room to tell the story on a grander scale and to make an entire new generation shit their pants at the sight of a clown.
The project also benefits from the blessing of Stephen King himself.
“The most important thing is that Stephen King gave us his blessing,” said Lin. “We didn’t want to make this unless he felt it was the right way to go, and when we sent him the script, the response that Cary got back was, ‘Go with God, please! This is the version the studio should make.’ So that was really gratifying.”
What do you guys think? Are you ready for another IT?
