Part and parcel of Stranger Things‘ charm was the way in which the Netflix Original wore its ’80s influences proudly for all to see, but long before the Duffer Brothers cooked up their nostalgic delight in Hawkins, Indiana, the filmmaking duo became attached to the long-gestating It reboot.
Of course, history tells us that the deal didn’t stick, leading Matt and Ross Duffer to seek pastures anew. And so Stranger Things was born. Going full circle, producer Dan Lin has revealed that New Line Cinema’s horror redo will play to the same audience enthralled by Netflix’s spooky original series.
Per Collider:
“I think a great analogy is actually Stranger Things, and we’re seeing it on Netflix right now. It’s very much an homage to ’80s movies, whether it’s classic Stephen King or even Spielberg . Think about Stand by Me as far as the bonding amongst the kids. But there is a really scary element in Pennywise.”
Swapping out the marauding Demogorgon for Pennywise the Clown – played in this instance by Bill Skarsgard of Hemlock Grove fame – Lin went on to outline how It is progressing, with many of the scenes already in the can focusing on the Losers Club as they unite in the face of true terror.
“You catching me at a really interesting time because we’ve been shooting mostly the kids’ work and now Pennywise is starting. We clearly had a great dynamic amongst the kids. Really great chemistry is always a challenging thing with a movie like It because you’re casting kids who don’t have a ton of experience, but it ended up being really natural. Each kid, like a Goonies or Stand By Me, has a very specific personality and they’re forming the loser’s club obviously. And now finally the evil force is coming into our movie. We’ve spent a few months getting the kids to bond and now they’re going to fight this evil, scary clown.”
Among that cast of newcomers are Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jeremy Ray Taylor.
Directed by Andy Muscietti (Mama), It will unleash Skarsgard’s demented trickster on September 8, 2017. It’ll be part of a two-tier scarefest, with New Line lining up a potential sequel should Muscietti’s revival fare well at the box office.
