i09 posted part of an interview with screenwriter Dave Kajganich, who is near completing his script for IT. Not surprisingly, the majority of his remarks center on how to deal with choosing what to use from the over thousand page book:
- When I heard Warner Bros. was going to give the novel a go theatrically, I went after the job hard. I knew the studio was committed to adapting IT as a single film, so I went back and reread the novel to see if I thought this was even possible, and to try to find a structure that would accommodate such a large number of characters in two different time periods, around 120 pages, which was another of the studio’s stipulations.
- The book’s length is clearly more suited to a mini-series-and I understand very well why they went that route the last time around-but I think the book’s content is really more appropriate for cinema. I told the studio from the beginning that I felt I needed to be able to write for an R rating, since I wanted to be as candid as the novel about the terrible things the characters go through as kids.
- Certain scenes I thought would be crucial to the coherence of the whole ended up cut, while other scenes, which were somewhat cursory in the book, ended up being pivotal in the script. I know I’m being vague, but there’s not a lot I can tell you at this point about the specifics, since we’re still very much in development on it. I’ll just say for now that we’re really swinging for the fences.
The Buzz: IT is one of the few books that actually scared me (the other, if you’re wondering, was The Exorcist), so it holds a special place in my heart. I’ve always considered it unfilmable as a theatrical movie, but I’d be happy to be proven wrong. My only wish is that Tim Curry would be called in to play Pennywise the monster clown again. As far as I’m concerned, he was the best part of the mini-series.
So what do you think? Is this a bad move on Warner Brothers’ part, or do they have the stuff to pull it off? I’m not entirely convinced they can, but I certainly hope so. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to dust off my copy of IT and get ready for a sleepless night.
