Things are really floating for Andrés Muschietti’s two-part remake of Stephen King’s It. A few weeks ago, the filmmaker posted a few pieces of concept art and set photos for his adaptation, and now he’s gone ahead and unleashed a terrifying first look at Bill Skarsgård as the nefarious titular force, Pennywise.
The soon-to-be 26-year-old actor spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the “extreme character,” specifically its complicated mythos: “He’s not even a clown. I’m playing just one of the beings It creates,” he explained, adding: “What’s funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it’s funny.”
Skarsgård also addressed the big shoes waiting to be filled with sewage water. “Tim Curry’s performance was truly great, but it’s important for me to do something different because of that,” he remarks of the veteran actor’s iconic role in the 1990 mini-series. “I’ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.”
Better yet, the kid’s hit the books, as he contends: “I’ve been doing some clown research. I’m not sure if there was so much clown phobia before the novel. There’s obviously been this thing where people find clowns are unsettling, but nobody explored it the way Stephen King did.”
As previously reported, this adaptation will split King’s original 1986 novel into two movies. The first will follow the children being stalked by the titular shapeshifting monster, while the second will pick up decades later, when those same kids are confronting their same demons as adults.
Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jeremy Ray Taylor lead the pack as The Losers Club which Skarsgård’s Pennywise and Owen Teague’s bullish Patrick Hocksetter will prey upon. Their adult counterparts have yet to be cast and it’s still unclear if they will prior to the first installment’s release.
Filming is currently underway in Port Hope, Ontario, which the production team has turned into Derry, Maine. Dread Central recently stumbled upon a number of juicy set photos, confirming the time frame (Summer 1989) and the appearance of one terrifying form of It (ahem, he’s carrying an axe). Take a look at a handful of shots below.
The first half of Stephen King’s It hits theaters September 8th, 2017.
Originally Posted by Chiefnj2:
Great idea to split it into two movies. The kid-centric story line can stand on its own and not be bogged down by the giant spider and awkward sex scene.
Originally Posted by Molitoth:
With as much grief that has been given to the stupid ass Spider in Part 2, I'm guessing the producers of this film will put extra effort into making it NOT suck.
I LOVE that this is being redone. I will only miss the acting of Tim Curry and Jonathan Brandis from the original.
Yeah, I don't think it's going to be hard to top the second part [Reply]
Going to be one of the best adaptations in a long time. Might be right up there with Shawshank if they do the imagery well enough. Less is more with this movie. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MotherfuckerJones:
First time I've watched a remake trailer and thought, "hmmm...this looks good." Love the way he comes out of the water at the end.
You must have missed the Fright Night remake. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Deberg_1990:
I liked The Stand , TommyKnockers and The Shining miniseries at the time. But they haven't aged well. Sometimes they show up on SyFy channel reruns
while I DO like the movie The Shining...they departed from the book a bit too much for my liking....ESPECIALLY the terrible ending.
I loved the miniseries....just loved it. glad they went back and got it right. steven weber is certainly no jack nicholson....but the series is better. man the lady in the tub....holy shit! [Reply]
Not sure I'm crazy about the stuff jumping at you scare tactics. Or the need to make the clown so demonic. What made the original terrifying was its subtlety. Will still be interesting though [Reply]
Originally Posted by Al Bundy:
You must have missed the Fright Night remake.
I didn't. It's not as good as this looks. We'll see. That remake wasn't horrible. Just something was off with it...oh I know...the retarded Peter Vincent they changed. [Reply]
That's an imgur gifv link. you have to go to the imgur site and get the embed code for moving gifs [in this case, click on the little green ball next to imgur in the lower right, then click on the three dots on the lower right of the image at the site, which then gives you an option to 'Embed Post'].
