It Remake Director Searches For Perfect Pennywise

Cary Fukunaga's 'It' remake is in active development, but is still searching the lands for the perfect actor to play Pennywise the clown.

The two-film project is one that’s seen the story’s author, horror maestro Stephen King; give his full backing, with claims that he’s very happy with the latest version of the screenplay.

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Fukunaga discussed how the novel’s time frame has been tweaked. As per the novel, the film will use a duel narrative, presumably with one strand focusing on the protagonists’ lives as kids in the 50s and then on their adulthood in the 80s. This time gap will likely be divided into each film, however it’s unclear if the update will re-imagine the specific eras in the novel and 1990’s ‘It’, directed by Tommy Lee Wallace.

It’s always a good omen when the person whose source material your film is based upon actually likes what’s going on with the re-imagining. So often novelists despise film adaptations (lest we forget P.L Travers’ legendary fallout during and after Disney made ‘Mary Poppins’, not to mention Alan Moore’s vocal rage aimed at anyone who wanted to make ‘Watchmen’), King’s comments come as a breath of fresh air.

“It’s really good to know Stephen likes what we did,” expresses Fukunaga. “I’ve been on 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.”

It’s good to know that this isn’t just a lazy, copycat cash-in; instead, there’s some passion and a logical thought process behind it. He goes on to say: “I decided to throw it all away and start from scratch. [Fukunaga and writers David Kajganich and Chase Palmer] changed names, dates, dynamics, but the spirit is similar to what he’d like to see in cinemas, I think.”

'It' has been in pre-production for over three months now, but is yet to confirm its cast or announce a release date. Hopefully Fukunaga finds his Pennywise (originally portrayed creepily by Tim Curry) sooner rather than later.

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Picture credit: Green/Epstein Productions