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Stephen King’s It Will Be Filmed This Year, Says Producer

The troubled big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel ‘It’ should finally go before cameras later this year, according to producer Roy Lee.

Lee tells Collider, “It will hopefully be shooting later this year. We just got the California tax credit… Gary Doberman wrote the most recent draft working with Andy Muschietti, so it’s being envisioned as two movies.”

‘Mama’ director Andrés Muschietti came on board the long in-development movie in July 2015, replacing original director Cary Fukunaga (’True Detective,’ ’Beasts of No Nation’) who quit over creative clashes with studio New Line Cinema.

Fukunga has claimed the studio wanted “a much more conventional, inoffensive script.” However, whilst his draft of the screenplay (written with Chase Palmer) has since been rewritten by Muschietti and Doberman, producer Lee insists the film will still be aiming for an R rating.

Still, in line with Fukunaga’s adaptation, ‘It’ will still be a two-volume movie, carving King’s vast 1,138 page narrative (previously shot as a TV mini-series in 1990 starring Tim Curry) in half, with the first film following the struggle between the protagonists and the evil Pennywise as children, and the second film picking up with them as adults.

Lee says the new script is “very close to the source material in one way but very different if you look at it as a literary piece of work.

“We’re taking it and making the movie from the point of view of the kids, and then making another movie from the point of view of the adults, that could potentially then be cut together like the novel. But it’s gonna be a really fun way of making this movie.”

Any further rewrites, Lee says, will be “mainly working on it for budgeting purposes to make it fit within the budget that we have.”

No casting news on the film has been confirmed yet. British actor Will Poulter, who had been cast as Pennywise by Fukunaga, reportedly left the film the same time as the director.

‘It’ makes its way closer to the screen as another high profile Stephen King adaptation, ‘The Dark Tower,’ is also in pre-production at Sony. However, another planned King adaptation at Warner Bros - ‘The Stand’ - is said to be on hold at present.

Another long-delayed King adaptation, ‘Cell’ - shot in 2014 - is provisionally set to be released this year.

Picture Credit: Warner Bros, Tor

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