Warner Brother Options King’s “It”
Stephen King’s best-selling novel, “It” has already frightened an entire generation on the small-screen. But now the story of childhood friends reuniting in a small Maine town to confront a lurking horror from their childhood could get a chance to scare the willies out of a new generation at a theater near you.
Variety reports that Warner Brothers has optioned the rights to the big-screen adaptation of “It.”
The novel, published by King in the 80’s, has already seen life on the small screen as a four-hour mini-series, starring Tim Curry as the villainous Pennywise the Clown.
“It” follows seven children in a small Maine town who confront the source of a series of murders in 1958 and again in 1985, when the cycle begins again.
The novel weights in at over 1,000 pages and according to reports the timeframe of the novel would be adjusted to reflect current dates. Dave Kajganich will adapt the novel for the big-screen.
I only hope they show more of the violence they couldn’t show in the TV version that is described in the book. I also wonder if they are going to get any of the surviving cast members from the TV version to do cameos in this one (John Ritter was one of the childhood friends).
Having both read the book and seen the mini-series, I’m not sure how they plan to condense that much story into a single feature film. As a general rule, Stephen King’s novels don’t translate to the big screen nearly as well as his short stories. If they can pull it off, though, I’ll be impressed. Especially if they can get Seth Green in for a cameo.
I read the book first then watched the movie. I felt little connection or care for the characters in the movie like I did reading the book. The book was raw and borderline uncomfortable on how it dealt with sexuality, racism, anti-semitism, and child abuse. It’s (Pennywise) and the Macrouniverse’s existence was profound. The Movie was dull, miscast, kid friendly, and anticlimatic. Imagine eating freshly butchered tender loin then going back to a Big Mac. Maybe I am spoiled by careful treatment given to the big budget LOTR. I liked Tim Curry, but that hair and suit was not Pennywise. John Boy is no Big Bill either!
I do not think a two to three hour feature movie could do it justice. They should send it to HBO or Showtime and make it a lengthy R rated series. Many of the supportive background stories (ie. Fire at the Black Spot) could used as full episodes