The Director of IT Talks About The Faults of The Miniseries and Why He Cast Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise
I'm really curious and excited to see how this new adaptation of Stephen King's It turns out. I love what I've seen so far and I think director Andy Muschietti is going to give fans something scary as hell. I'm a huge fan of both the book and the 90s mini-series that was made. That miniseries was pretty damn good and scary for TV back then! Of course, it wasn't as dark as the book was, but it was still great. The upcoming film is definitely going to take the horror factor of the story to a whole new level!
Muschietti wasn't a big fan of the miniseries though. During an interview with Variety, the director talked about his adaptation and shared how he felt about the original miniseries pointing out its faults, saying:
"Most of the people are excited about seeing a good adaptation. There are naysayers. Those tend to be the people who are fans of the miniseries rather than the fans of the book. People who read the book and got the book, they’re not crazy about the miniseries. It was a very watered-down version. It didn’t contain the darkness that the book had. They couldn’t make something for TV about a clown who eats children."
It is my favorite book from King, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of the miniseries. I'm also excited about the upcoming film, and if it ends up being better than the miniseries... awesome! My favorite thing about the miniseries was Tim Curry as Pennywise The Clown, he was amazing! Of course, most of the fans of the miniseries are going to compare Bill Skarsgard's take on the character to Curry's. One thing you have to keep in mind, though, is that he's not Curry and this Pennywise is going to be incredibly different in this movie. Muschietti is obviously taking this to a crazy dark level that we didn't get with the miniseries. He wants this film to be more of a closer adaptation of the book.
When talking about why Skarsgard was cast in the role of Pennywise, the director explained:
"I wanted to stay true to the essence of the character. I knew that I didn’t want to go the road of Tim Curry [who played Pennywise in the TV miniseries]. Bill Skarsgard caught my attention. The character has a childish and sweet demeanor, but there’s something very off about him. Bill has that balance in him. He can be sweet and cute, but he can be pretty disturbing."
I like what I've seen of Skarsgard 's Pennywise so far and I can't wait to see more. It is set to open in theaters on September 8, 2017.