[UPDATED] New Line delays It reboot indefinitely

Just a day after the announcement that director Cary Fukunaga had departed the reboot of It, the new adaptation of the Stephen King novel, has been shelved indefinitely.

The reboot was originally in production over at Warner Bros. before making the move to New Line Cinema and was intended by Fukunaga to be a two-part film event. Production was set to begin in June with Will Poulter starring as Pennywise the Clown, but it does not seem that it will happen at all. Fukunaga exited the project over the weekend citing scheduling along with rumors that he clashed with the studio over their desire to slash the budget.


Oh well. I didn't want this to happen anyway, so I can't say I'm upset. 




LOL/JK: It appears that in order to avoid an indefinite delay, the project is headed back over to Warner Bros. With this move the budget will remain intact and the setting will return to New York City and the two-script adaptation will also remain... so they say. Oh well. We can't win them all.

Cary Fukunaga exits the It reboot

Director Cary Fukunaga is apparently out of the It reboot according to sources close to New Line. A couple reasons are being cited including poor box office performance for Poltergeist as well as budget cuts at New Line. Also, the film shifting studios from Warner Bros. to New Line Cinema has also been mentioned.

This comes just a week or so after confirmation that Will Poulter was on board to portray Pennywise the Clown. The biggest thing up for conversation here is whether New Line will keep the film split into two parts as Fukunaga wanted. I would assume if they are experiencing budget issues they will try and keep production under wraps and only have one film.

To me, this just shows that this is yet another movie that shouldn't be happening. It doesn't need a reboot at all.

Will Poulter is the new Pennywise the Clown

We are in the midst of the new reboot of the Stephen King novel, It. The original television mini-series, starring Tim Curry, aired back in 1991 and sparked a fear of clowns within my age bracket. We now have confirmation that Will Poulter (We Are the Millers) has been cast as Pennywise, the role that Curry made iconic in the original miniseries.

It is coming to us in a two-part film adaptation and will be directed by Cary Fukunaga. Originally casting was leaning towards Ben Mendelsohn, but he was cast in Star Wars: Rogue One and it created a scheduling conflict that couldn't be rectified. Filming is set to begin this summer, so I'm sure we'll get a glimpse at the costume and makeup before too long. I don't hate this choice, but I don't know if he would have been the first actor to come to mind.

It returning to New Line Cinema

Warner Bros. has been in the process of developing a new adaptation of Stephen King's It for quite a few years now. The studio previously hired Cary Fukunaga, Seth Grahame-Smith, Dan Lin, and Roy Lee to create this adaptation. Fukunaga is coming off a very successful series for HBO (aka, True Detective) and as a result the adaptation of It is shifting studios... kind of.

New Line Cinema recently announced that they are moving from West Hollywood to Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and are trying to make it clear that each division will be releasing specific kinds of films. With films like The Conjuring it is becoming apparent that the money maker these days, other than superhero films, are horror films. It will apparently follow suit and focus more on thrills and psychological horror rather than the classic slasher film.
The semi-tricky part about this one is they are apparently writing this adaptation into two films. The first film will focus on the children who have to defeat a creature called It. The second film will focus on the kids as adults who have to come together once again despite not remembering the initial events.

It was adapted into a television mini-series back in 1990. It starred Tim Curry in the title role along with Seth Green, John Ritter, and Emily Perkins. It has become somewhat of a cult classic among the horror community and many, including myself, are pretty skeptical of redoing it.