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The creator of HBO’s mind-boggling True Detective series Cary Fukunaga is still deep in development on a two-part feature adaptation of Stephen King’s IT. In a new interview with Brazilian paper O Globo, he talks about the process of shaping King’s mammoth tome.
“I’ve been in this project for about five years,” says Fukunaga, in Bloody Disgusting's translation of the interview. “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.”
Currently set up at Warner Bros./New Line, this modern day retelling will be the second time King’s celebrated work has been adapted for the screen.
The 1990 miniseries cast Tim Curry as sewer-dwelling clown Pennywise, a physical manifestation of an ancient evil that preys on a group of youngsters who dub themselves The Losers Club. The latter half of both the novel and series revisits the group as adults when they return to their hometown of Derry, Maine to face Pennywise one last time.
“This will be my first movie in the US and I’m still trying to find the perfect guy to play Pennywise,” he adds. “It’s really good to know Stephen [King] likes what we did. We (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.”
With King’s stamp of approval secured, it’s only a matter of time before the role of Pennywise is cast. Prepare yourself for many, many sleepless nights...
IT is scheduled to commence filming this summer, with Fukunaga on track to direct and co-write the first instalment.
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