Producer Talks It Remake; Film Is Akin to Stranger Things
We told you that the Duffer Brothers’ “Stranger Things” came to be as a result of Warner Bros. passing on the duo for their upcoming reiteration of Stephen King’s It, but today that film’s producer, Dan Lin, spoke a bit about the shoot that’s currently going on under the direction of the very capable Andy Muschietti (Mama).
“I think a great analogy is actually ‘Stranger Things,’ and we’re seeing it on Netflix right now,” said Lin to Collider regarding the tone of the film and the relationship with its child stars. “It’s very much an homage to ’80s movies, whether it’s classic Stephen King or even Spielberg. Think about Stand by Me as far as the bonding amongst the kids. But there is a really scary element in Pennywise.”
Lin continues, “[You’re] catching me at a really interesting time because we’ve been shooting mostly the kids’ work, and now Pennywise is starting. We clearly had a great dynamic amongst the kids. Really great chemistry is always a challenging thing with a movie like It because you’re casting kids who don’t have a ton of experience, but it ended up being really natural. Each kid, like a Goonies or Stand by Me, has a very specific personality; and they’re forming the Losers’ Club obviously. And now finally the evil force is coming into our movie. We’ve spent a few months getting the kids to bond, and now they’re going to fight this evil, scary clown.”
As for the new Pennywise played by Bill Skarsgard… “His build is really interesting. He’s really tall and lanky and feels a little clown-like in his movement. When he came in — we had a lot of different actors read — and when he came in, he had a different spin on the character that got us really excited. You’ve had Heath Ledger doing almost a clown joker; you’ve seen obviously Tim Curry as a clown. We wanted someone who created a Pennywise character that would stand on its own, and Bill came in and created this character that frankly freaked us out.”
In the new It adaptation, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Hamilton, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jeremy Ray Taylor will play the kids Pennywise terrorizes.
Creature performer Javier Botet has signed on for an undisclosed role, but given the actor’s body of work, we cannot wait to see what he has cooked up! Owen Teague will play Patrick Hocksetter, part of a group of bullies who torment the Losers’ Club. He is a psychopath and keeps a refrigerator full of animals that he’s killed.
Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg, and Barbara Muschietti are producing.
The story follows a group of kids called the Losers’ Club who defeat a creature called It. Years later, the creature returns; and the former club members, now adults, have to band together again even though they have no memory of the first battle. The story will be spread across two films.
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