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Producer Dan Lin has been developing a big screen adaptation of Stephen King's 1986 novel It for a few years already. He's brought on True Detective director Cary Fukunaga to bring this story to life on the big screen. In a recent interview with Vulture, Lin offers an update on the project and reveals that it will actually start shooting next summer!
“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.”
It is another one of my all time favorite books that King has written. I also really enjoy the 1990 TV movie that was made that starred Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown. The story is so big and so epic that the plan is to turn into a two part film, which is exactly what I was hoping would happen. Like the TV movie, the first part will focus entirely on the seven kids of Derry, Maine known as the Losers Club as they are being terrorized by an evil being disguised as a clown. The second film will focus on these same characters all grown up as they return to Derry to face their nightmare and rid the world of this horrific monster. Lin explained:
“The book is so epic that we couldn’t tell it all in one movie and service the characters with enough depth.”
As of right now, Fukunaga is only attached to direct the first film in the set, and he may also co-write the second. Of course, there's always a chance that as he's working on the first film, he'll come back to direct the second. Lin did go on to say that they do have King's blessing:
“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.”
That's really awesome to hear! It's always good when King backs the film projects based on his work. There's no word on if this version of the film will be set in the late 1950s and mid 1980s like the book. There's always a chance that they could take an updated approach, which would set the kids in the '80s and then return to a present-day Derry. Either way would be fine for me, but I do kind of prefer the 1950s setting, even though the 80s could be fun.
The next movie that we'll see from Fukunaga will be the African child soldier drama Beasts of No Nation, which stars Idris Elba.
