Stephen King's IT Film Is Looking for the Perfect Pennywise Clown
True Detective director Cary Fukunaga has been in the process of developing a big screen adaptation of Stephen King's classic horror story IT for the big screen. The story will be split into two films. One will focus on the main characters as kids, the other will focus on those characters as adults. I really trust that this guy knows what he's doing and that he's going to give us a hell of a great film adaptation.
In a recent interview with the Brazilian newspaper O Globo (via: Bloody-Disgusting), Fukunaga talked about the project and revealed that he's actually been developing it for several years. At one point he scrapped everything and started from scratch.
“I’ve been in this project for about five years. I had already read versions of the script but nothing felt right. Everybody tried to put too much into it, telling it from the perspective of the adult and the child in a two hour movie. It didn’t fit. So I decided to throw it all away and start from scratch."
I didn't realize he had been working on getting this movie made for that long! The guy is obviously committed and ready to move it forward. He says that he's currently in the process of trying to cast the perfect actor in the role of the evil clown Pennywise.
“This will be my first movie in the US and I’m still trying to find the perfect guy to play Pennywise."
It's going to be really hard to find someone who will be better than Tim Curry, who played the character in the 1990s TV movie. He really was the perfect Pennywise, but I'm sure there's someone else out there that will give us another terrifying imagining. I really hope they cast someone great in the role, someone who will WOW the fans.
The director went on to reveal that the movie will not take place in the 1960s like the original story. He also says that they changed some of the characters names as well.
"It’s really good to know Stephen [King] likes what we did. We (Fukunaga and writers David Kajganich and Chase Palmer) changed names, dates (the story is originally set in the 60′s) dynamics, but the spirit is similar to what he’d like to see in cinemas, I think.”
That's really interesting. I was really hoping that they would stick with the original setting, but if it's not going to be the 60s, I do hope that they kids version of the story will at least be set in the 1980s, because that could be really cool too. It would also allow for them to have the adult part of the story set in present day.
I know this might rub fans of the novel the wrong way, but Fukunaga is a huge fan of this story, and I don't think he's going to let fans down. On top of that, he has King's full support!
The story follows seven outcast kids known as “The Loser Club,” who are forced to fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. 30 years later, they are called back to fight the monster again.
Who do you think would make a good Pennywise? I'm just going to throw Tom Hiddleston's name out there because he would be awesome in the role.