IT: CHAPTER 2 Screenwriter Discusses The Ritual Of Chud and Adapting It To Film
Adapting Stephen King's It to a film must've been challenging enough, but one has to wonder how screenwriter Gary Dauberman will pull off the bat-shit stuff that's in store for IT: Chapter 2! That's especially true for "The Ritual of Chud," which is, without a doubt, one of the weirdest scenes anyone can read in a horror book. I won't spoil it for those who haven't read it here, but I will say that it's a psychic battle in which the two forces duel with their wits. Those who have read the book can only imagine what a challenge the scene will be to depict on the big screen. Dauberman recently spoke about creating that scene for the big screen, and how he and the rest of the team found a way to tackle it as best they could (via CinemaBlend):
“The Ritual of Chüd is challenging, but it’s such an important component of the book that we had to address it. That stuff is difficult to balance, but because [director Andy Muschietti, producer Barbara Muschietti and I] worked with each other before, when I’m writing pages and all that stuff it becomes more of a conversation and less like, ‘Hey, here’s what I did.’ It’s sort of organic; it’s really kind of just chipping away at the stone and trying to find the most focused, accessible way into some of the more metaphysical aspects of that book.”
It sounds like they tried to do the best they could, but were probably limited by budget and the fact that some of the stuff King wrote in that scene is just bat-shit crazy. Do you think there's any way Dauberman and the IT: Chapter 2 team can do that moment justice?
If you do want an in-depth explanation of The Ritual of Chud, here ya go: