Pennywise the clown is one of the most enduring horror images on screen, one of the evil incarnations of the demon that haunts a town in Stephen King’s It. Now someone has been found to inherit the role from Tim Curry, who brought him so memorably to life in the 1991 TV miniseries version. Will Poulter is that brave soul.
Jane Eyre/True Detective director Cary Fukunaga has been developing the planned two-film big screen version of the story, working on the script with Chase Palmer.
While the exact take on the tale hasn’t been disclosed, Fukunaga has said it will largely stick to the story of a group of outcast kids who must band together to battle the monster that has been bothering their home town, fighting their own demons in the process, reuniting to take the creature on again as grown-ups.
Poulter might seem like an odd choice given his relative youth, but he’s been delivering great performances for years, and showed a darker side with last year’s The Maze Runner. According to Variety, Fukunaga – who had been initially considering older actors – was impressed with his audition and the early footage of his work Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant apparently shows an even more villainous side.
Poulter has recently been on our screens in Glassland, with The Revenant due on January 15 next year.