Caffeinated Clint
“True Detective” and “Jane Eyre” helmer Cary Fukunaga has exited New Line’s two-film adaptation of Stephen King’s “It”.
The departure of the TV wunderkind is another blow to a project that’s been tossed about like a drug-addled orphan in recent years. “It” has seen quite a few filmmakers come and go – including Ben Affleck – suggesting Pennywise’s haunt isn’t the easiest place to work. Studio politics? Creative clashes? Problems with Chase Palmer’s script? The head-scratching task of trying to condense that HUGE book into two average-length features?
Seems it was more a case of financials, with New Line trying to save bucks on the project by scrapping some of the filmmaker’s ideas. For one, he wanted Ben Mendelsohn for the role of the title villain, but the studio didn’t want to pay the rising Aussie actor what he was worth.
King’s book was last transferred to the screen via the telly, with a ’90s mini-series starring Tim Curry, John Ritter, Annette O’Toole, and Richard Masur. This new version has “We’re the Millers” alum Will Poulter penciled in to play the killer clown role.
Filming was slated to begin this Summer, but seems production has been “Fury Road”-ed for the time being.
According to The Wrap, Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg, Dan Lin and Roy Lee remain on as producers but obviously the film’s postponement may see a couple of the attachments come loose. The book’s author, Stephen King took to Twitter to pretty much declare the project dead- while reminding Hollywood how difficult it would be having anyone but Tim Curry behind the mask anyway.
