Hey guys, I’m Kya and I’ve been waiting for this new ‘It’ movie for a long time.
It’s been 27 years since the first miniseries debuted on TV
Which just so happens to be how long Pennywise slumbers between feedings.
Over the years, everyone from George A. Romero to Cary Fukunaga has been involved in attempting to remake ‘It.’
Even the Duffer Brothers begged for the chance to take a shot at the movie.
We’ll get into that later, as well as the crazy coincidence that led to Finn Wolfhard being cast in both ‘It’ and ‘Stranger Things’
For now, let’s all float through It’s’ development hell and ask ourselves: Was 'It' worth the wait?
This whole ‘It’ the title versus it the word thing is going to get confusing as all hell.
Anyways, let’s start with the novel.
Stephen King had two goals in mind when he sat down to write ‘It’
He wanted to write a novel about childhood, and how we lose sight of the magic and innocence of youth as we grow older.
He also just wanted to write a book with all his favorite monsters in it.
I'll bring back all the monster I remember from my childhood. The ones that I grew up with.
Being a child of the ‘50s, he grew up terrified by Universal’s classic stable of movie monsters.
But he got impatient waiting for them to create the Dark Universe, so he threw them all into ‘It.’
Into... 'It...' F*cking words!
The titular creature preys off the fears of children, and he’s able to shapeshift into whatever frightens his victim the most.
Beep beep, Richie!
And all the old standbys are represented in ‘It.’
You’ve got vampires, werewolves, mummies...
But none of them hold a candle to It’s favorite form, the most blood-curdling monster King ever created.
Pennywise, the dancing clown.
Released in 1986, The book was a bestseller, but Pennywise wouldn’t become a true icon until the miniseries.
ABC snapped up the rights to ‘It’ before it was even published, and they got to work on developing it as a TV miniseries.
Stephen King's 'It' will continue in a moment!
They started by hiring some serious talent that had worked on King adaptations before.
First, they hired ‘Carrie’ screenwriter Larry Cohen to turn the massive book into a feasible screenplay.
Also someone give that man an award because the book is over a thousand pages.
Which is ridiculous for anyone, anywhere.
Shout out to Larry Cohen again. Miracle worker. Bless you.
As for a director, the network hired the late horror legend George Romero. Who I love.
Romero and King worked close together on ‘Creepshow,’ and he seemed like an incredible fit for ‘It.’
Unfortunately, ABC got cold feet about the project.
We're shutting down production. We only have $1,000 left anyway.
They originally planned ‘It’ as an eight-hour miniseries, but they were nervous about committing so much time and money to a disturbing horror film.
They slashed the running time down to four hours-- with commercials-- spread over two nights.
Not only that, but the strict TV content standards meant they had to cut a lot of the novel’s gore.
Romero bailed, and they hired John Carpenter protege Tommy Lee Wallace to take the reigns instead.
The final show was kind of a mixed bag.
The first half is genuinely awesome, but the story loses steam once it switches focus to the adults on night two.
I have a theory about that. I think it's because most of the premise of 'It' is that it scares your child self and reminds you of the fear you had as a child.
So it's hard to be scared of grown adults being chased by another adult.
Kiss me, fat boy!
Pretty much everyone agrees on the best part of ‘It,’ though.
Excuse me, sir! Do you have Prince Albert in a can? Well you better let him out!
The unforgettably evil portrayal of Pennywise by the great Tim Curry.
Who’s getting his own title card here because he’s that damn amazing.
Can you believe they weren’t going to cast him at first?
I am eternal, child! I am the eater of worlds! And of children!
Originally, they were considering ‘Planet of the Apes’ star Roddy McDowall for the title role.
And he would have been a great fit for the elaborate makeup they had planned for Pennywise.
But when Tim Curry was cast, he wasn’t so hot on the idea.
His last role with a ton of prosthetics was in the movie Legend, and he got so hot and claustrophobic that he literally tore off his skin trying to remove it.
I wouldn't want to go back to that either, Jesus Christ.
So they simplified the design to just a big skullcap and traditional clown makeup.
Turns out, they didn’t need any fancy prosthetics.
Tim Curry’s acting skill alone created one of the most chilling monsters in horror history.
Don't you want a balloon?
It’s a performance that stood the test of time, so why even bother doing a remake?
Well, let’s look at how it came to be, starting with the failed Fukunaga 'It.'
In 2009, Warner Brothers announced they were moving forward with a new adaptation of ‘It.’
This time, the studio was fine with an R rating, but they had a hard limit of 120 pages for the new script.
At about a minute a page, that’s about 2/3rds of the runtime of the miniseries, which still had to cut a ton of stuff from the long-ass novel.
Given what happened with ‘The Dark Tower,’ it’s probably a good thing that this first attempt fizzled out.
In 2012, Warner hired future ‘True Detective’ director Cary Fukunaga to write and direct the reboot.
Not only that, the script was being split into two separate movies, one focusing on the Losers Club as kids, and one on the adults.
They even got as far as casting ‘The Revenant’s’ Will Poulter as Pennywise.
I remember when that happened and there were all these edits of him as Pennywise and I was actually really excited about that.
But I’m glad Bill Skarsgard wound up with the final part.
He’s great in the horror series ‘Hemlock Grove,’ so I’m a believer in his Pennywise potential.
Anyways, in 2015 Fukunaga announced his departure from the project.
He wanted to make an unconventional horror film, but the studio was afraid that it would just confuse and offend the typical audience.
Do you want to see something strange and mystical? NO!
Rather than compromise his vision, Fukunaga left, and for a while it looked like the ‘It’ adaptation would never happen.
Even Stephen King called it dead on Twitter.
It’s a bummer all around. I would have loved to see what Fukunaga could have done with such a dark, twisted story.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything as tense as that six-minute ‘True Detective’ tracking shot.
The f*ck are you doing, man? Shut the f*ck up!
And all of the Yellow King and Carcosa stuff showed us that he’s got a great eye for subtle horror.
But at least one good thing came out of him dropping out.
You might even call it a Stranger Thing.
Jesus Christ, Moose.
Let’s talk about the 2017 movie.
See, when the Duffer brothers were initially casting ‘Stranger Things,’ they chose Finn Wolfhard to play the lead character Mike.
Or, at least, they tried.
Turns out, Fukunaga had already snatched him up to play Richie in ‘It.’
But that never happened, so the Duffers got their first pick.
Then, once ‘Stranger Things’ was in the can, ‘It’ started production again under new director Andrés Muschietti.
And the only holdover from Fukunaga’s cast was Finn Wolfhard.
Doesn't smell like ka-ka to me, senor!
It’s kind of ironic that a show that took so much inspiration from ‘It’ might have actually influenced the final adaptation.
I mean, they brought Finn back after ‘Stranger Things’ made him a star.
Someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we've done or will do we're gonna do over and over again.
Although it’s probably just coincidence that they moved the setting of part one to the 1980’s.
No way!
King wrote the book about what scared him as a kid in the ‘50s, but modern audiences don’t have the same connection with the classics.
They’re updating It’s monstrous forms to stay as relevant and scary as the original version all those years ago.
It’s a departure from the book, but everything we’ve seen so far looks like a horrifying new take on an all-time classic.
So, was ‘It’ all worth it?
If it means Pennywise will strike terror in the hearts of a new generation of moviegoers,
You better believe ‘It.’
Jesus f*cking Christ...