IT Loses Director
Only two weeks after the news that Will Poulter was the front-runner to play Pennywise in the remake of It, based on Stephen King’s novel, sources confirm that director Cary Fukunaga has dropped out of the project.
Fukunaga has been with the project since 2012, when he and Chase Palmer wrote a script for Warner Bros. The project was conceived as a two-movie tale, with part one covering the first encounter with Pennywise — the protagonists all being children — and the second movie telling the grown-up encounter, the final confrontation with the evil clown when they return to their hometown after learning Pennywise has resurfaced.
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The project was moved to New Line a few weeks ago, and that’s apparently where the clashes began to occur. According to a report in The Wrap, New Line had issues with the two-picture setup and the resulting budget, as well as Fukunaga’s insistence on using locations in New York, which would also add to the expense of the project.
Sources also say that the lukewarm opening for Poltergeist has New Line rethinking the project as well, since that film also had an evil clown in the marketing materials.
One insider says the project is dead in its current formulation, which means either New Line will go back to square one and start over with a script for a single (albeit longer) film, or they may spike it altogether.
