New Line’s It Reboot Nixed Two Scenes To Stay Within Budget

It has come an awful long way since Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) and Chase Palmer first submitted their story pitch for New Line’s two-part reboot.

Before Andy Muschietti ultimately took the reins for the studio, Fukunaga was on board to direct from a script that would have seemingly doubled down on the younger Losers Club and their nightmarish encounter with Pennywise. That being said, and as the film’s most recent trailer attests, Muschietti’s end product retains much of that nostalgia factor for the simple reason that both he and writer-producer Barbara Muschietti have split Stephen King’s literary classic in two.

That means a sequel is on the cards, even if New Line has been coy about an official announcement – understandable, too, given the Powers That Be will likely want to gauge It‘s box office performance before issuing the green light. But when Collider caught up with Barbara Muschietti, she outlined the ways in which the DNA of Fukunaga can still be felt in It Part 1 – The Losers Club.

They were able to [incorporate it into the script], but they were not able to incorporate it into the budget. Just like we weren’t able to, but it’s going on the second…that sequence with the Black Spot, we think it’s gonna be a great opening for the next film.

Adapting a horror tome, one that spans over 1,000 pages, is no mean feat, so it’s small wonder that the Muschiettis had to be quite selective when tackling King’s Pennywise saga. There are, however, two scenes that didn’t quite make the cut due to budgetary constraints, as Andy Muschietti tells Collider:

There are two sequences that I thought of that I had to postpone until more money comes. One is a flashback, that sort of portrays the first encounter of It and humans, which is an amazing scene. And the other is a dream, where Bill sees— he’s leaning on a bridge, in Derry, and he’s spitting on the Kenduskeag Stream, and suddenly he sees the reflection of a balloon. And he looks up and it’s not one balloon, but a bunch of balloons, and then he starts to see body parts, and the shot goes wider and it’s a multitude of dead kids floating. I couldn’t afford it.

It Part 1 – The Losers Club is due to be summoned into theaters on September 8th. But will you muster up the courage to go see Andy Muschietti’s adaptation on the big screen?