We’ve seen set pictures of the Losers’ Club, we’ve seen pictures of what the film’s version of Derry will look like, but this is what we were waiting for…our first look at Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the clown in Andy Muschietti’s film of Stephen King’s It.
The picture (from EW, via Collider) shows the Hemlock Grove star in character as the nightmare creature who scared the living crap out of us on the pages of King’s novel, and when he was played by Tim Curry in Tommy Lee Wallace’s TV movie.
“It’s such an extreme character. Inhumane,” Skarsgård told the site. “It’s beyond even a sociopath, because he’s not even human. He’s not even a clown. I’m playing just one of the beings It creates.”
Extreme is definitely the word, as Pennywise flits between cheery dancing clown and the kind of creature that knows everything that you’ve ever been afraid of and will happily rip a small child’s arm from its socket (dammit, we’re still not over the opening Georgie sequence).
“It’s important that we do something fresh and original for this one. It’s purposely not going toward that weird, greasy look,” he continued. ““It truly enjoys the shape of the clown Pennywise, and enjoys the game and the hunt,” the actor says. “What’s funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it’s funny.”
The article goes on to discuss the legacy of Curry’s performance, which the actor is very much aware of. Those are huge, huge clown shoes to fill, and he knows it. “Tim Curry’s performance was truly great, but it’s important for me to do something different because of that,” he said. “I’ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.”
We can’t wait.
“The story follows a group of kids called the Losers Club who defeat a creature called It. Years later, the creature returns, and the former club members, now adults, have to band together again even though they have no memory of the first battle.”
It is released on 17 September 2017. Keep up with the latest horror news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
