With Stephen King’s original book being practically the size of a breeze block, we were all surprised to learn that 2017’s It Chapter 1 only had a running time of 2-and-a-quarter hours. To make up for that, director Andy Muschietti has confirmed that It Chapter 2 is a far bit longer, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes long.
In an interview with Digital Spy, the director said: “At the beginning, when you’re writing and building the beats of the story, everything that you put in there seems very essential to the story.
“However, when you have the movie finally edited and it’s four hours long, you realise that some of the events and some of the beats can be easily lifted but the essence of the story remains intact. You cannot deliver a 4-hour movie because people will start to feel uncomfortable – no matter what they see – but we ended up having a movie that is 2 hours and 45 minutes, and the pacing is very good.”
Muschietti also added than no one who has seen the film so far has had any complaint about the lengthy running time.
Though 2 hours and 45 minutes is a long time to be sat in a cinema, we’re relieved it’s not going to be four hours, no matter how good the film is.
It Chapter 2 stars James McAvoy as Bill, Jessica Chastain as Bev, Bill Hader as Richie, James Ransone as Eddie, Isiah Mustafa as Mike, Jay Ryan as Ben, Andy Bean as Stanley, Xavier Dolan as Adrian Mellon and Will Beinbrink as Tom Rogan, not to mention Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise.
The film is being directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. Here’s the synopsis:
Evil resurfaces in Derry as director Andy Muschietti reunites the Losers Club—young and adult—in a return to where it all began with It Chapter Two.
The film is Muschietti’s follow-up to 2017’s critically acclaimed and massive worldwide box office hit IT, which grossed over $700 million globally. Both redefining and transcending the genre, IT became part of the cultural zeitgeist as well as the highest-grossing horror film of all time.
Because every 27 years evil revisits the town of Derry, Maine, It Chapter Two brings the characters—who’ve long since gone their separate ways—back together as adults, nearly three decades after the events of the first film.
It Chapter 2 is released on 6 September 2019. Keep up with the latest horror news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
