Although it looked like the new film version of Stephen King’s **It **was well on track, with True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga talking up his plans to make two movies from the story of an evil fiend targeting smalltown folk as both kids as adults and Will Poulter entering talks to play the demonic central creature, everything has come to a screeching halt. Fukunaga has left the film and New Line has called an indefinite halt to forward movement.
The Wrap reports that the primary problem with this new take on the King tale was wrangling over the expanding budget. That two-film plan wasn’t going to be cheap and as the production moved from Warner Bros. to its more financially cautious New Line arm, Fukunaga was asked to make deeper cuts to his vision for the story. Adding to that was Fukunaga’s desire to shoot in more expensive locales around New York State and his aim to cast Ben Mendelsohn as big villain (and occasional clown impersonator) Pennywise. With the purse strings tightening, Mendelsohn reportedly passed on the role because he’d have had to take a big pay cut. Poulter was the more affordable, yet still solid choice, but for now even he won’t be starring.
Now the film’s future is in limbo. New Line may well look to find a new director, one who would be willing to confine the story to a single movie to fit in with the budget-conscious attitude, while Fukunaga’s version of the project is effectively dead. So what do you think of the news – sorry to learn that an ambitious plan won’t go ahead? Or are you pleased another horror reboot has been curtailed? Sound off!