This 1990 release was terrible. No competent reader of that book could have enjoyed that movie. This movie really needs to be at least 3 hours long; anything less will probably be crap. A great visual director needs to be involved. The one important thing the last movie left out was that the kids weren't scared of a "spider" or a "clown" per se; "It" is so much more than that. I will have to maintain low hopes for this movie until I see it. In my opinion, this is King's hardest novel to adapt to the screen.
Even though the 1990 version is kind of cheesey, and it doesn't help that one of the Waltons is in it, Tim Curry's version of Pennywise permanently scarred for me life! I already had a strong suspicion of clowns and really didn't care for them too much, but seeing It changed things drastically!
I don't know how they'll do it, but if they get a really good director and cast, anything is possible. It's true it'll need to be epic though in order to tell the story right. They can't just breeze through it in 2 hours. Not to mention, now that we've had the giant spider battle from Lord of the Rings, it makes me wonder if they'll change that side of the story?
This movie really needs to be at least 3 hours long; anything less will probably be crap.
Unless they do a non-literal adaptation, which is what I think is called for here. Take some of the core ideas of IT and turn it into its own cinematic entity.
“The remake will be set in the mid-1980s and in the present almost equally — mirroring the twenty-odd-year gap King uses in the book — and with a great deal of care and attention paid to the back stories of all the characters,” says Kajganich. “I think the real twist here is that my pitch to WB — which they’ve assured me they’re on board for — is that this will not be PG-13. This will be R. Which means we can really honor the book and engage with the traumas (both the paranormal ones and those they deal with at home and school) that these character endure.”
Quote:
“I plan to be very protective of the book,” Kajganich continues. “The reality, though, is that WB wants to do this as a single film, so I will have to kill a few darlings to make that happen. You have my promise, though, that I will do this with the utmost humility and respect for King’s work. He’s the King, after all, and I intend to continue to pledge to him my allegiance.”
