In development for several years now, Cary Fukunaga’s re-adaptation of the seminal Stephen King monster tome, IT, is finally making headway. Before the True Detective creator became a household name, he was already attached to direct a brand new version of IT for Warner Bros. subsidiary, New Line Cinema. Warner’s original plan was to bring a new vision of the terrifying Pennywise to the screen via a script by Dave Kajganich (The Invasion.) That was reported back in 2009, and since then Fukunaga and Chase Palmer took command of the screenwriting duties. Currently, the plan is to split the hefty book into two parts.
For those who’ve not read or seen the TV miniseries, IT tells the story of a group of young outsiders – who dub themselves The Losers Club – who face an ancient evil that lives beneath their hometown of Derry. Years later, the team reunites to return home after a series of child murders suggest that one sewer-stinkin’ clown is to blame. As you might have guessed, the first pic will focus on the childhood era, and the second on the Losers as adults.
Now, we’ve an update on the project courtesy of Vulture, who sat down with producer Dan Lin to get the latest. While it’s languished in development for years, apparently that was part of the plan, as it’s now gearing up for production:
“The idea is to start official prep in March for a summer shoot. 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.”
If Fukunaga’s recent work is worth considering – and it is – then we could be in store for a truly cheese-free big screen version of IT. Tim Curry’s take on Pennywise, the clownish form the evil being takes to terrorize Derry, was effective, but the humour deveined a lot of the dread that King captured in his novel. So, what does the horror author make of Fukunaga’s vision for one of his bestsellers? Lin went on to say:
“The most important thing is that Stephen King gave us his blessing. 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.”
In short, if King’s in – we’re in.
