Early Details on the IT Remake
Staff Contributor
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I often try hard to not be another cynical voice on the Internet, but it’s news like this that finds me shaking my head in disbelief. Anyone who’s read Stephen King’s IT knows that it can’t possibly work as a single feature-length film, right? We also know that it isn’t stopping Warner Bros. from trying. And while the project is still in development, read on for what screenwriter Dave Kajganich had to say about it.
Last year we told you that the IT remake was moving forward, and one year later we still only know about that much. But the Stephen King fansite Lilja’s Library had a very interesting conversation with screenwriter Dave Kajganich about his approach to the project which, as of now, is steadily moving forward.
“In all of my talks with the studio, it has only ever been discussed as a single feature film,” says Kajganich. “The book’s length is clearly more suited to a mini-series and I understand very well why they went that route the last time around, but I think the book’s content is really more appropriate for cinema. I told the studio from the beginning that I felt I needed to be able to write for an R rating, since I wanted to be as candid as the novel about the terrible things the characters go through as kids. They agreed and off I went.”
Kajganich also spoke on the seemingly impossible (and unenviable) task of consolidating the novel without losing sight of the story:
“I think the biggest difference is that we’re working with about two-thirds the onscreen time they had for the miniseries, Kajganich continues. “That sounds dire, I know, but it doesn’t necessarily mean two-thirds the amount of story. I’m finding as many ways as I can to make certain scenes redundant by deepening and doubling others. To me, this is an interesting process because it has the effect of thematically intensifying the whole, but it can lead to dramatic surprises. Certain scenes I thought would be crucial to the coherence of the whole ended up cut, while other scenes, which were somewhat cursory in the book, ended up being pivotal in the script.”
The writer was, at one time, attached to the Paramount Pet Sematary remake, but the ‘all knowing’ powers-that-be decided that the film should be tailored to a much younger audience, which meant that Ellie Creed was suddenly going to be the focal point of the film … and a teenager.
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