Stephen King’s It Will Finally Make it to the Big Screen

Vulture got the scoop on the upcoming (True Detective’s) Gary Fukunaga adaptation of King’s insanely brilliant book, It:

“The idea is to start official prep in March for a summer shoot,” said Lin. “Cary likes to develop things for a while, and we’ve been with this for about three or four years, so we’re super excited that he stayed with it. You guys are gonna be really excited.”

Lin says his big plan is to split King’s sprawling novel into two movies. “The book is so epic that we couldn’t tell it all in one movie and service the characters with enough depth,” explained Lin; the first film, then, will be a coming-of-age story about the children tormented by It, while the second will skip ahead in time as those same characters band together to continue the fight as adults.

If you’ve not read It, you’re in for a treat. Walk, don’t run to your nearest bookstore. It is absolutely one of King’s best books.  I never wanted it to end. Dividing it up into two movies breaks up King’s carefully laid narrative that shifts back and forth between past and present. It’s important because the stories from the past explain the continuing stories in the present.  I am not sure how well it will sit to tell the children’s version first. Yet, he can’t really tell the adult version either. The kid part is by far the most exciting, of course. I think it could work best in the True Detective long form television movie format — then Fukunaga could take his time without having to shift so much of the story’s structure.

But it’s a mistake to think an adaptation has to work the same way the book worked. In fact, the best adaptations take their cue from cinematic language, what works on the screen, as opposed to what works in a book.

Either way, this is fantastic news for fans of the book. Now, let’s see Doctor Sleep, Mr. Mercedes and Revival all made into movies.

These images from Deviant Art.