Stephen King’s ‘It’ Getting Two-Film Adaptation, By ‘Jane Eyre’ Director Options

[Evil Zoe]

Link to the sacrilege

Warner Bros. has been planning a film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1,138 page novel It for the past three years. The last substantial report on the project was nearly two years ago, with an update from screenwriter David Kajganich (The Invasion, Blood Creek) about the challenge of fitting King’s massive literature into a 2-3 hour movie.

Now, we have word that the project is still lurching forward; however, It (no pun) has taken on a radically new form. King’s source material will now be covered over the course of two films, as co-written and directed by Cary Fukunaga. It’s probably safe to assume that Kaganich’s script draft has been abandoned, at this point.


Fukunaga began his career as a cinematographer, before breaking out as a writer and director with the immigration drama Sin Nombre at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The critical success of last year’s Jane Eyre (which Fukunaga also helmed) has propelled the filmmaker to greater things, including a job working on the HBO TV series True Detectives – and now, the task of bringing It to the big screen.


Heat Vision says that Chase Palmer will co-write the It script with Fukunaga; the two are also collaborating on the upcoming No Blood, No Guts, No Glory. Onboard to produce the two-movie venture are such big names as seasoned horror producer Roy Lee (The Ring, Grudge), Dan Lin (Sherlock Holmes), and KatzSmith Production heads Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) and David Katzenberg (The Hard Times of RJ Berger).


King’s It novel tells the tale of the “Losers Club,” a pack of outcast teens living in Derry, Maine (circa 1957). The “Losers” discover that a vicious, shape-shifting monster – who often takes on the form of a demented clown called Pennywise – is preying on the town’s children. Eventually, the “Losers” seemingly kill the creature – though they swear a pact to reunite, should Pennywise ever come back. Sure enough, some 27 years later, a string of murders in Derry points to the monster’s return. But will painful memories of the past prevent the former friends from joining forces again, in order to destroy Pennywise once and for all?

It was previously adapted into a 3-hour, single-camera, TV mini-series back in 1990. As was pointed out by Kajganich (back when he was working on the project) that the TV version really could not do justice to the more gruesome and adult content of King’s literature. Moreover, Fukunaga will also have the advantage of an extra 1-2 hours of running time to cover the full story material – which is still a pretty daunting task, as the book is split between two parallel-running, intertwining narrative threads (one set in 1957-58, the other 1984-85).

As it were, Warner Bros. already has another movie adaptation of a King novel in the works, which was also previously brought to life in TV mini-series form: The Stand. Similar to It, The Stand is being overseen by a credible filmmaker (namely, Ben Affleck) and is expected to spread out its respective 1,000 pages of source material over the course of at least two, maybe even three, movies. While the studio definitely loves the built-in “franchise” potential of these King projects, both It and The Stand should benefit (artistically) from not being constricted to a single-movie format.

In this writer’s opinion, Fukunaga possesses an eye for impeccable, haunting cinematography (no surprise, given his background) and is a good match to handle King’s book – which is rife with dark melodrama and much of the religious/social commentary that are nowadays known as the author’s bread and butter, when it comes to his horror literature.

No. Just.....NO.

Bad idea is bad and no one can top Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown.

[Benbot]

That clown was scary as hell. I don't see how they can make it better.

[Evil Zoe]

It's not as though there aren't a hundred or so other Stephen King stories to make into movies.

[DrSpengler]

Urgh.

One of the main problems stems from the source material. There is NO WAY to do a giant spider at the end and NOT have it suck. One of the reasons I prefer Kubrick's version of The Shining; he eliminated all the stupid. Stuff like giant flying mantas and man-eating bushes and Jack turning into a zombie after bonking himself in the head with a mallet over and over.


Anyway, I freakin LOVE the first half of the old miniseries. But the second half, when they're all adults? A lot harder to sit through. Harry Anderson sort of had his dial stuck on "annoying" for that performance.

[Rust]

Yeah, this is the story that ends with a Giant Spider. You go from psychological, nigh-supernatural clown to...Giant Spider. Possibly even wearing a Diaper. And insane.

Kind of like an idea that this story merits a two movie remake.

[Database]

I agree its going to be hard to top the old one, its not perfect but Tim Curry really did well as Pennywise and that is what sells the whole thing; Tim Curry just having fun with the role. They are really going to have to struggle to find someone that can pull off both creepy and awkardly humourous as he did. That is going to be the whole crux of the movie, imo. Even if nothing else is good, Pennywise will still make it worth watching if done right.

[Rust]

He's a spider.

I dunno, I guess I never "got" Stephen King's stuff but I find all his novel adaptations to be SciFi Original Picture quality in terms of plot.

[Database]

He's a spider.

I dunno, I guess I never "got" Stephen King's stuff but I find all his novel adaptations to be SciFi Original Picture quality in terms of plot.

Just be glad Jon Peters isn't involved.

[Creedence]

Will it have the excessively awkward child orgy scene?

[Rust]

He's a spider.

I dunno, I guess I never "got" Stephen King's stuff but I find all his novel adaptations to be SciFi Original Picture quality in terms of plot.

Just be glad Jon Peters isn't involved.

MOAR GIANT SPIDERS! MOAR RACISM! NO CAPES!

[Darknova4life]

Will it have the excessively awkward child orgy scene?

Beat me to it. And god, I hope not!

[DrSpengler]

Yeah, Tim Curry was what elevated the original miniseries above nearly all its setbacks (like most of the acting from everybody else). That guy ROCKED the role and, as bad as the miniseries is from a critical POV as an adult, Pennywise scared the BEJEEZUSS outta me when it originally aired (I was in elementary school).

They'll have a tough time finding a suitable replacement.


As for the novel: Like most of King's novels, it needed to be about 400 pages shorter with a completely different ending.

Personally, I prefer his short story "The Boogeyman". Most of the themes from "It" but nicely compacted into a quick and truly chilling tale. None of that "obviously getting paid by the page" stuff you get from his novels...

[Automan2000]

I thought the miniseries was just silly and not particularly frightening. Then again I was just about to graduate HS when it came out so that may have something to do with it.

[Ironbite]

If this starts us on the road to the Dark Tower I'm kinda for it but who would they really get to play Pennywise?

Ironbite-Curry's portrayal was just masterful.

[BlitzwingHaz]

Will it have the excessively awkward child orgy scene?

That scene almost ruined the book for me. I reckon King's a bit of a perv.
Has the old movie dated much? I haven't seen it in years.

[DrSpengler]

Has the old movie dated much? I haven't seen it in years.

Like you wouldn't believe.

The main problem I have with the old miniseries, aside from the ending, is the cast. Just really, *really* bad. Except Tim Curry. Harry Anderson and Seth Green are probably the worst offenders (and they play the same character).

The effects are dated but not in such a terrible way, save for a little stop motion here and there. There's some good tension and scares, too, but it's mostly saved for the first half of the mini. The second half is a chore.

[MonsterFromMars]

Wasn't the giant Spider just another... Visualization of the internal fear of the kids.



Seriously. Pennywise always came off as a offspring of the "color" In Lovecrafts stories.


Wasn't it really just a ball of energy light?

This post has been edited by MonsterFromMars: Jun 8 2012, 06:09 PM

[TM2-Megatron]

Technically, It was a she... the spider ending probably would look cheesy no matter how good effects have gotten since the 90s miniseries, but maybe they could change that somehow. The spider appearance was said to just be the closest thing a human mind could come to seeing It's actual form. No reason that couldn't be something else; King's stories have received much more significant changes than that in some adaptations.

It's true, though, Stephen King hasn't had great luck with a lot of the adaptations. But there've been some good ones... The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Apt Pupil, probably a couple others I've forgotten. The Stand miniseries wasn't too bad, either, as far as those things go.

This post has been edited by TM2-Megatron: Jun 8 2012, 06:13 PM

[Database]

Yeah, I think they could pretty easily get away with changing IT's form in the end and not ruin anything.

[Bleargh001]

Is Tim Curry dead or something? Couldn't they just get him to play the clown again? But, like, this time, with the rest of the cast being good actors too?

Cause that mini-series was dippy as hell, but hug that man was scary.