A number of crew members are finally talking about the upcoming adaptation of Steven King’s IT. A lot of the statements begin to shed light on what actually made it into the film from the novel, and whether a big element from the novel will ever show up in the film.
Producer Barbara Muschietti states that a big scene from the novel didn’t make it into the film, the massacre at The Black Spot. Unfortunately budget constraints are to be blamed for this. Muschietti does say that the scene will show up in the sequel, or at least elements of it will:
“There are two sequences that I thought of that I had to postpone until more money comes. One is a flashback, that sort of portrays the first encounter of It and humans, which is an amazing scene. And the other is a dream, where Bill sees – he’s leaning on a bridge, in Derry, and he’s spitting on the Kenduskeag Stream, and suddenly he sees the reflection of a balloon. And he looks up and it’s not one balloon, but a bunch of balloons, and then he starts to see body parts, and the shot goes wider and it’s a multitude of dead kids floating. I couldn’t afford it.”
The entire mythology with the turtle is not in the film, but there are easter egg references to it sprinkled throughout the film. One of the easter eggs will be a LEGO turtle that will appear at key moments in the movie. Pennywise is also not going to be in the film too terribly much (only really being in the third act of the film) so that his appearance has more impact.
One of the biggest changes that were made from the original Cary Fukunaga script was an emphasis on the shape-shifting nature of the character. The second act of the film will have the adult versions of the characters, but will also have the kid versions of them as well. Muschietti goes on to say:
“I always insisted that if there is a second part, there would be a dialogue between the two timelines, and that it would be approached like the adult life of the losers, there would be flashbacks that sort of illuminate events that are not told in the first one.”
The film will be a two-part film, but the first one will stand alone, with only the final act tying the two films together. Most of the film used practical effects to cut down on the costs of CG. Finally, the film wanted to be toned down, instead of infusing the nostalgia 1980s feel of Steven Spielberg films and Netflix’s Stranger Things.
