The closer we are from its release date, the more information and details are seeing the light about the new It (2017) movie. And that is doing nothing but bringing more gasoline to the hype fire the film has turned into. Some voices claim this could be one of the reference titles in the genre. I think that is going too far, especially since the movie hasn’t been seen yet. And yes, the original Stephen King novel is one of his best works, and the official mini-series / film It (1990) gave nightmares to a whole generation. But let’s hold our horses until the movie is out this September. Although it already won the Golden Trailer Awards 2017 in the category of Best Horror.
In an interview with JoBlo, filmmakers Barbara and Andy Muschietti confessed they met with many actors for the role, some of whom are big names. One of the most surprising ones was Tilda Swinton. “She wasn’t available. No, no I swear to god. She was not. We had a slot to shoot the movie and she wasn’t available so she didn’t even audition. But of course, we all thought about it“, said Barbara Muschietti, producer and sister of the director Andy Muschietti. “We auditioned literally hundreds of potential Bob Grays or Pennywise and it was an amazing process. We got to audition people that don’t audition anymore and a huge gamut of talent; women, younger age, older age, we really went through the spectrum of actors“. And then, after an astonishing screen test, they found who was going to be their Pennywise, a young and not very know face, Bill Skarsgård. “When we started, we started seeing people right away and the moment Bill popped up, I think we knew it was for us”.
In addition to that, the people from Bloody Disgusting also visited the filming set and talked to the filmmakers. They made mention that their version of It is closer to the original novel by Stephen King, so it’s not a remake of the original film It (1990), it’s a “theatrical adaptation of the book”. In Muschietti’s film, the story is set “in a small town in Maine, where seven children known as The Losers’ Club come face to face with life problems, bullies, and a monster that takes the shape of a clown called Pennywise“.
In this new version, as on the novel, Pennywise will be adapting into several forms, based on the inner fears of each one of the kids he is chasing. It is reported though that he won’t be adapting into the spider, as he did in the 1990 version. But he will indeed eventually turn into the leper, which will be played by Javier Botet, who already worked with director Andy Muschietti in his previous and only film to date Mama (2013). In the words of the filmmakers, the movie will be scarier and bloodier than the previous adaptation, reaching the R-rating. “There will be a blood oath at the end of the film, but no rite of passage sex scene”.
The script for this adaptation is written by Chase Palmer, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman, being original author Stephen King not forming part of the project in any way. And besides Bill Skarsgård, the main cast consists of Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Nicholas Hamilton, Megan Charpentier, Owen Teague, Steven Williams, Wyatt Oleff and Pip Dwyer. Check out the third official trailer for It (2017), released last Thursday:
