After the fate of the two-part remake of Stephen King’s It remake was thrown into doubt following the departure of True Detective‘s Cary Fukunaga, New Line has found a new director to bring Pennywise to the big screen.
THR reports that Mama director Andy Muschietti will step into Fukunaga’s sizeable shoes and that they’re actively looking for a new writer to bring the script in line with his vision. The June shoot date is obviously out the window, but the site says that the project is a priority for New Line, so we should expect to see more announcements soon.
We may also be looking for a new Pennywise, as Will Poulter’s involvement is up in the air.
While we’re still pretty freakin’ upset that Fukunaga walked away from It, it’s time to start thinking about how Muschietti could be a good fit for the story. His short film Mama was stunning, and while the feature length version was a bit of a disappointment, he could work better with someone else’s story, and he’s also shown he can get strong performances from children.
Muschietti has been a bit of a hot property following Mama‘s box office success. He was attached to Universal’s reboot of The Mummy but left over creative differences (reportedly, he wanted to make it a horror, while the shared monster movie universe is looking more like action adventure), and he was also involved with the still-in-development film of Josh Malerman’s excellent novel Bird Box.
What do you think? Is Muschietti the one to bring Pennywise and The Losers Club to the big screen? Here’s a reminder of how good that short film is…
You can buy It by Stephen King in paperback for £6.99 at Amazon.co.uk. Keep up with the latest horror news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
