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It, retroactively known as It Chapter One, is a 2017 American-Canadian supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's 1986 novel of the same name. The film was produced by New Line Cinema, KatzSmith Productions, Lin Pictures, and Vertigo Entertainment. It is the first film in the It film series as well as being the second adaptation following Tommy Lee Wallace's 1990 miniseries. It tells the story of seven children in Derry, Maine who are terrorized by the eponymous being, only to face their own personal demons in the process. The film is also known as It: Part 1 – The Losers' Club.

Directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman, the film stars Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough, with Bill Skarsgård starring as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, respectively. Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, and Jackson Robert Scott are all featured in supporting roles. Principal photography began in Toronto on June 27, 2016, and ended on September 21, 2016. The locations for It were in the Greater Toronto Area, including Port Hope, Oshawa, and Riverdale.

It premiered in Los Angeles on September 5, 2017, and was released in the United States on September 8, 2017, in 2D and IMAX. The film set numerous box office records and grossed over $701 million worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. Unadjusted for inflation, it became the highest-grossing horror film of all time. It received positive reviews, with critics praising the performances, direction, cinematography and musical score, and many calling it one of the best Stephen King adaptations. It has received numerous awards and nominations, earning two Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association nominations, including Best Acting Ensemble. It was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie. The film won three Bogey Awards, for pulling in more than two million German admissions in 11 days. In addition, the motion picture has been named as one of the best films of 2017 by various critics, appearing on several critics' end-of-year lists. The sequel, It Chapter Two, was released on September 6, 2019.

Plot[]

In October 1988, Bill Denbrough crafts a paper sailboat for Georgie, his six-year-old brother. Georgie sails the boat along the rainy streets of small town Derry, Maine, only to have it fall down a storm drain. As he attempts to retrieve it, Georgie sees a clown in the drain, who introduces himself as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown". Pennywise entices Georgie to come closer, then bites his arm off and drags him into the sewer.

The following summer, Bill and his friends Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stan Uris run afoul of older bully Henry Bowers and his friends Belch Huggins, Patrick Hockstetter, and Victor Criss. Bill, still haunted by Georgie's disappearance, calculates that his brother's body may have washed up in a marshy wasteland called the Barrens. He recruits his friends to investigate, believing Georgie may still be alive. Ben Hanscom, one of Bill's new classmates, learns that unexplained tragedies and child disappearances have plagued the town for centuries. Targeted by Bowers' gang, Ben flees into the Barrens and meets Bill's group. They find the sneaker of a missing girl named Betty Ripsom, while Patrick is killed by Pennywise while searching the sewers for Ben.

Beverly Marsh, a girl bullied over her rumored promiscuity, also joins the group; both Bill and Ben develop feelings for her. Later, the group befriends orphan Mike Hanlon after rescuing him from Bowers. Each member of the group has encountered terrifying manifestations of the same menacing clown who attacked Georgie: a headless undead boy (Ben), a sink that spews blood only children can see (Beverly), a diseased and rotting leper (Eddie), a disturbing painting coming alive (Stan), Mike's parents burning alive (Mike), and a frightening phantom of Georgie (Bill). Now calling themselves "The Losers Club", they realize they are all being stalked by the same entity, which they refer to as "It". They determine that It appears as their individual worst fears, awakening every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry before resuming hibernation, and moves about by using the sewer lines, which all lead to an old stone well hidden under an abandoned house on Neibolt Street.

After Pennywise attacks them, the group ventures to the house to confront It, only to be separated and terrorized. As Pennywise gloats to Bill about Georgie, the Losers regroup and Beverly impales Pennywise through the head, forcing the clown to retreat. The group flees the house and begins to splinter, with only Bill and Beverly resolute in fighting It.

Weeks later, after Beverly confronts and incapacitates her sexually abusive father, Pennywise abducts her. The Losers Club reassembles and returns to the abandoned house to rescue her. Bowers, who has murdered his abusive father after being driven insane by It, attacks the group; Mike fights back and pushes Bowers down the well, apparently killing him. The Losers descend into the sewers and find It's underground lair, which contains a mountain of decayed circus props and children's belongings, around which the bodies of It's child victims float in mid-air. Beverly, now catatonic after being exposed to bright lights inside It's gaping mouth, is restored to consciousness when Ben kisses her. Bill encounters Georgie, but recognizes that he is It in disguise. As Pennywise, It takes Bill hostage, offering to spare the others and go into hibernation if they let It feed on Bill. The Losers reject this, battling with It while overcoming their various fears. It is eventually defeated and retreats deeper into the sewers, with Bill declaring that It will starve during its hibernation. After finding the remnants of Georgie's raincoat, Bill finally comes to terms with his brother's death, with his friends comforting him.

As summer ends, Beverly informs the group of a vision she had while catatonic, where she saw them fighting It again as adults. The Losers swear a blood oath that they will return to Derry as adults if It returns. After the others make their goodbyes and disperse, Beverly and Bill discuss her leaving the next day to live with her aunt in Portland. Before she leaves, Bill reveals his feelings and they kiss.

Cast[]

Main cast[]

  • Jaeden Lieberher as Bill Denbrough
The leader of the group of kids known as the Losers Club, who vows to get revenge on the monster with the help of his friends. Denbrough losing his brother makes the battle against It a more personal crusade for him than any of the others. That and his stutter is what binds him to the group and transforms him into Big Bill, the leader. On the character of Denbrough, Muschietti stated: "Bill is like a ghost in his own home: nobody sees him because his parents can't get over Georgie's death." Ty Simpkins was considered for the role in Cary Fukunaga's production. On the description of his character, Lieberher remarked of Bill that: "He's very strong and never backs down. He does what he thinks is right and would do anything for the people that he loves." Lieberher spoke of influences such as YouTube and Colin Firth's performance in The King's Speech (2010) in assisting him to develop Bill's stutter, while researching and getting used to stuttering on certain words, certain syllables, certain letters and sounds.
  • Bill Skarsgård as It / Pennywise The Dancing Clown / Bob Gray
An ancient, trans-dimensional evil that awakens every twenty-seven years. Will Poulter was previously cast in the role but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, with Poulter stating, "I was [attached] when Mr. Fukunaga was directing, but the circumstances at New Line are such that a new director's attached now." Poulter continued, "I think, with all due respect to him of course, I was selected by Cary and subscribed to Cary's vision for the movie, and so I haven't had a chance to connect with that [new] director." Mark Rylance, Ben Mendelsohn, Kirk Acevedo, Hugo Weaving and Tilda Swinton were considered for the role, with Mendelsohn passing on the project, as New Line wanted him to take a sizable pay cut. On June 3, 2016, The Independent officially reported, after final negotiations took place, that Muschietti had chosen actor Bill Skarsgård to portray the character. On portraying Pennywise, Skarsgård stated, "It's such an extreme character. Inhumane, 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." Skarsgård described the character further, saying, "It truly enjoys the shape of the clown Pennywise, and enjoys the game and the hunt." He also commented, "What's funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it's funny." On Pennywise's design, Skarsgård stated, "It's important that we do something fresh and original for this one. It's purposely not going toward that weird, greasy look." He also commented on being compared to Tim Curry, stating that, "Curry's performance was truly great, but it's important for me to do something different because of that. I'll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry." Skarsgård also elaborated on his age, stating, "There's a childishness to the character, because he's so closely linked to the kids. The clown is the manifestation of children's imaginations, so there's something child-like about that." Producer Dan Lin spoke of Skarsgård's physical attributes: "His build is really interesting. He's really tall and lanky, and feels a little clown like in his movement. When he came in — we had a lot of different actors read, and when he came in he had a different spin on the character that got us really excited." Lin concluded by comparing the character with that of Heath Ledger's Joker, "You've had [Ledger] doing almost a clown joker, you've seen obviously Tim Curry as a clown. We wanted someone who created a Pennywise character that would stand on its own and Bill came in and created this character that frankly freaked us out." Muschietti spoke of Skarsgård's Pennywise as one not to lurk in the shadows, to which he remarked, "Pennywise shows up, he’s front and center, and he does his show. He has an act. So it’s weird all the time, and every little thing implies a further threat." Muschietti also spoke of wanting to make the sense of dread that grows in Derry part of the dread of Pennywise, to which he stated, "He's not just a character that can shape-shift, his influence is all around. The anticipation of him is almost scarier than the actual Pennywise scares." On selecting Skarsgård to portray Pennywise, Muschietti wanted to stay true to the essence of the character, and Skarsgård caught his attention, "The character has a childish and sweet demeanor, but there’s something very off about him. Skarsgård has that balance in him. He can be sweet and cute, but he can be pretty disturbing." Producer Barbara Muschietti referred to Skarsgård's Pennywise as "the ancestral clown," shunning 21st century modern clown characteristics and instead hearkening back to 18th century aesthetics with 'upgrades'."
  • Jeremy Ray Taylor as Ben Hanscom
A shy, overweight boy with a crush on Beverly, who relays the incidents of Derry's past to his friends. On the character of Hanscom, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, to which he stated, "Ben is bullied at school."
  • Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh
A flame-haired tomboy who fends off an abusive father at home, while forming a strong bond with Ben. Beverly's Loser-ship wasn't defined by the fact she was abused but by her poverty. On the character of Marsh, Muschietti spoke of her knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, to which he stated, "Beverly's case is of course the worst, because it’s about sexual abuse on a minor."[citation needed] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lillis spoke of Muschietti not wanting herself and her co-stars to spend too much time with Skarsgård: "We actually weren't allowed to see him until our scenes, because we wanted the horror to be real." On the character of Marsh, Lillis described her as: "Kind of a tough person. She hides herself. She tries to hide her emotions and hide her feelings. She distances herself from everyone but once she has this friend group she doesn't want to let it go because this is the only friend group that she has and so she's a very strong character."[citation needed] Working with Muschietti, Lillis and he developed Marsh as rebelling against her father, with Lillis having independence with the character, while also stating, "We definitely talked about her mother, who was never there — she wasn't even in the movie, but we talked about background for the character." Lillis spoke of how Beverly is someone she aspires to be, relating to her her strength, her way of facing her fears: "When I read about her, I kind of got the sense that she was someone I could definitely look up to. I would be happy if I had any similarity to her." On her connection with her fellow co-stars she noted that the closeness of the friendships formed allowed Lillis connect with her own character: "I relate to Beverly – the way she deals with her emotions, and the way she was around the Losers. I felt that way around the actual actors."
  • Finn Wolfhard as Richie Tozier
The bespectacled best friend of Bill, whose loud mouth and foul language often get him into trouble. Wolfhard shared the first image of the Losers Club on his Instagram account, with the photo captioned as "The Losers Club take Toronto", showing the cast of actors who will be playing the protagonists of the piece. He auditioned for the part of Tozier for Fukunaga's It in 2015, before Fukunaga left, with Wolfhard being the only actor cast in both Muschietti and Fukanaga's version. On the character of Tozier, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, to which he stated, "We don't know much about Richie's personality, because he's the big mouth of the group. But we suppose he's also neglected at home, and he's the clown of the band because he needs attention." Of his character's changes from the novel to the film, Wolfhard stated, "Richie's always been the same. There's some similarities to the book and there's other stuff they added because some of the stuff that we said in this movie you can't say in the '50s." Wolfhard felt that there wasn't much research required in approaching Richie: " You just have to read the character breakdown and it helps a lot to see the difference between the characters in the book, and the miniseries, as well to get a raw take on it." In an interview with GQ, Wolfhard spoke of how all of The Losers bonded on set, and that the friendship has carried over: "That friendship is for real, for sure. Every time I'm in L.A., I stay with Wyatt, who plays Stanley. We hang out all the time in L.A. and wherever they are."
  • Wyatt Oleff as Stanley Uris
The pragmatic son of a rabbi, whose bar mitzvah studies are haunted by a ghoulish woman from a painting. On the character of Uris, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, to which he also stated, "Long story short, there’s all sorts of difficult situations, and we had the chance to tell them in a movie that faces directly those conflicts the families of the young actors were very open-minded, so we could tell the about subjects that are normally very touchy." Muschietti made Stanley the son of a rabbi, which is a change from the novel, to add a bit of that sense of responsibility, while to show oppression from his father, with the theme of oppression being a recurring force in the story of the adults of Derry. Oleff recalled his first scene shot being a speech at his bar mitzvah: "I had a ton of lines to memorize and they even added a whole new paragraph while we were filming. I was like, Oh boy. After a while it got a lot easier to say over and over gain [sic] it was, like, 10 hours filming that scene." On the character of Uris, Oleff spoke by stating: "Stanley, in the group is the last one to believe that It is actually real because he just doesn't want to. It doesn't fit within his reality until. something happens. He relates to everyone, but he's the one who tries to organize everything, but he can't. It's falling apart for him and his friends come to support him.” While Oleff stated Stanley as having OCD remarked: "he tries to lay everything out in his own mind pattern kinda thing. And Pennywise comes along and just shatters everything he's definitely the most scared." Uris suffers from an injury sustained at the end of Muschietti's It, to which Oleff remarks "He's been scarred, I guess you can say but Stanley is scarred mentally and physically by these marks They're permanent, so every time he would look in the mirror he'd see it and be reminded about what happened. Oleff spoke of his research into the 1980s in which his parents helped him as "They told me a lot about the '80s and what music. I've been listening to a lot of '80s music recently. That's helped me get into character. I made a playlist of what I think Stanley would listen to in the '80s." Oleff also spoke of the fellowship between his co-stars and himself, where he states "I think that translates on screen. You could see the friendship we have on and off-screen. We’ve been together for so long that you can see our connection, in our characters, but also it’s us connecting as humans and friends." Relating to sensitivity in emotions, Oleff compared himself to Uris when stating: "Stanley tries to hide his emotions and sometimes I accidentally do that as well. So I can definitely relate to him in that way. One way to describe Stanley is like the voice of reason that no one listens to and that's also me in real life."[citation needed]
  • Chosen Jacobs as Mike Hanlon
A sweet, softly-spoken black boy living on the outskirts of Derry on his Grandfather's farm. On the character of Hanlon, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, to which he also stated, "Long story short, there’s all sorts of difficult situations, and we had the chance to tell them in a movie that faces directly those conflicts the families of the young actors were very open-minded, so we could tell the about subjects that are normally very touchy." When describing Hanlon, Jacobs stated that although Mike's more independent in characterization, he's still an eighties character, while elaborating by stating: "I mean he doesn't have any friends growing up, isolated, black, in the eighties, in a primarily Caucasian environment, so I think he's just got a sweetness about him." On the characterization of Hanlon, Jacobs said: "finding friends that accept him for who he is means a lot to him. So he would never betray that friendship, and I feel like I'm kind of that way or at least I try to be."[citation needed] Jacobs also mentioned: "I always say this because it's so true, Mike is the best friend anyone could ask for, just because he's been so isolated and he really appreciates friendships." while stating that he was excited to portray Hanlon as: "I loved the depth of Mike, because he's just kind of a sweet, backbone type of guy He's the guy you bring back to moms. I appreciated being able to play that character." Jacobs felt that portraying Hanlon wasn't difficult as he just had to channel the best aspects of himself, while suggesting they have many similarities and some differences. He brought up the element of Hanlon being one of the only African-Americans in Derry, while stating that he and the other Losers all have similar isolationism: "He grew up the outsider because of racial tension, which separated him that makes him really appreciate when someone says, ‘Hey, I like you for who you are.’" Jacobs highlighted the bond Mike shares with his Losers' Club friends while also stating: "Pennywise is just a symbol for all the hard things that happen in life that bring people together Of course we changed. We became more mature. Some people break out of their shells, some people retract into themselves because it's scary. This horror film is more than just horror. It’s a coming-of-age movie. On the experience of shooting Muschietti's film, Jacobs spoke of it as "my favorite summer of my 16 long years on earth"
  • Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie Kaspbrak
A sickly boy who only feels truly well when he is with his friends. On the character of Kaspbrak, Muschietti spoke of him knowing a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights, to which he also stated, "Long story short, there's all sorts of difficult situations, and we had the chance to tell them in a movie that faces directly those conflicts the families of the young actors were very open-minded, so we could tell the about subjects that are normally very touchy." The off-screen friendships began to influence the onscreen friendships, with Grazer recalling a scene where they were able to draw on their genuine feelings for one another for a particularly emotional scene: We're lifelong friends now in reality and in the movie. We're shooting a scene now where Stanley or Wyatt is breaking down and we're all huddling around him crying and it's an amazing powerful scene Because of the friendships, it's real." He highlighted his enjoyment of the intense scenes he had with Skarsgård, stating: "I remember one scene after he was done choking me and stuff, he goes, Jack, are you okay? And I was like, 'Yeah! That was so much fun! I love what you're doing with the character, like let's do that again." On his experiences with Muschietti, Grazer mentioned his usage of storyboards for scenes while also stating But to break us into character – I actually felt like I was pretty close to Eddie – we’d stick to our guns about a lot of things, we really didn’t back down on our opinions." Grazer spoke of his appreciation of films such as Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and Batman (1989) that gave him "insight on how he could improvise or reuse those things as references to the time period."
  • Nicholas Hamilton as Henry Bowers
A young sociopath who leads the Bowers Gang, and terrorizes the Losers' Club. On the character of Bowers, Hamilton stated: "You see a lot of characters in movies who are just bullies and just there to be the antagonist and mess with the main character. With Bowers, he has so many different layers to him, with his father being the way he is and him having to live up to that." Hamilton prepared for the role by studying Jarred Blancard's portrayal of the character in It (1990), and in Hamilton's words: "watched all the bits of my original character" for research. Blancard spoke to Hamilton, with Blancard giving him advice on how to handle some of the "psychopathic-ness" and general meanness of Bowers. Hamilton added, through the character of Bowers, that "There's stuff that I have to do that is really creepy and the opportunity to help share my psychotic side has been really fun." Additionally Hamilton spoke of a scene shared with Ray Taylor, wherein he had to "terrorize the hell out of him and get right in his face." Hamilton highlighted the generic portrayal bullying and the bully in "in any movie", to which he stated: "Bowers and his gang are just so much different. There's a story, there's layers, he's vulnerable at times, he's not just the dick, so I really like that. There's definitely stuff to play around with."[citation needed]
  • Jackson Robert Scott as Georgie Denbrough
The innocent, energetic 7-year-old brother of Bill Denbrough, whose death at the hands of Pennywise results in the next summer's events.

Additional cast[]

  • Owen Teague is introduced as Patrick Hockstetter, a psychopath who keeps a refrigerator full of animals that he has killed;
  • Logan Thompson appears as Victor "Vic" Criss, the inseparable friend of Henry Bowers;
  • Jake Sim appears as Reginald "Belch" Huggins, the biggest, strongest and clumsiest member of the Bowers Gang;
  • Javier Botet appears as The Leper, a rotting homeless man that encounters Eddie Kaspbrak under the porch of the house on 29 Neibolt Street;
  • Tatum Lee appears as Judith, one of It's horrifying creations;
  • Steven Williams appears as Leroy Hanlon, the grandfather of Mike Hanlon who runs a nearby abattoir;
  • Stephen Bogaert appears as Alvin Marsh, the abusive father of Beverly Marsh;
  • Geoffrey Pounsett appears as Zack Denbrough, the father of Bill and George Denbrough;
  • Pip Dwyer appears as Sharon Denbrough, the caring and loving mother of Bill and George Denbrough;
  • Ari Cohen appears as Rabbi Uris, Stanley Uris's father and mentor in the Jewish religion;
  • Stuart Hughes appears as Oscar "Butch" Bowers, a racist and abusive officer of the Derry Police Department who is the father of Henry Bowers. Butch has a strong dislike towards the Hanlon family, especially Leroy;
  • Megan Charpentier appears as Greta Bowie, a snobby and stuck-up student in Mrs. Douglas's class and a classmate of the Losers Club at Derry Middle School, who lives in the richer parts of Derry.

Production[]

The project was in ongoing development since 2009. The proposed film adaptation has gone through two major phases of planning: initially with Cary Fukunaga from 2009 to 2015, with the early contributions of screenwriter David Kajganich, and with Andy Muschietti, with Fukunaga remaining in some capacity due to prior screenplay contributions.

David Kajganich (2009–2010)[]

"The thing about Stephen King's writing is that he draws his characters so well, it's hard not to imagine they're real people. So it honestly didn't occur to me to try to think of actors in those roles. Pennywise is a bit of a different story, though. His manner is so crucial to what's frightening about him, and it's too much fun to imagine all of the nuances different actors could give him. I think there are a hundred actors who could each pull off a fascinating, horrifying Pennywise, and I tried not to get too attached to any one actor in my head. I think the Pennywise in this adaptation is a less self-conscious of his own irony and surrealism than was Tim Curry's Pennywise. I think it will be harder to laugh at his antics since, under the permissiveness of an R rating, I was able to give him back a lot of his more upsetting moments from the novel, ones that could never be aired on network television."

On March 12, 2009, Variety reported that Warner Bros. Pictures would be bringing Stephen King's novel to the big screen, with David Kajganich to adapt King's novel, while Dan Lin, Roy Lee and Doug Davison would be producing the piece. When Kajganich learned of Warner Bros. plans to adapt King's novel, he went after the job. Knowing that Warner Bros. was committed to adapting It as a single feature film, Kajganich began to attempt 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 one of Warner Bros. stipulations. Kajganich worked with Lin, Lee, and Davison on The Invasion (2007), and he knew they would champion good storytelling, and allow him the time to work out a solid first draft of the screenplay. Kajganich spoke of the remake being set in the, "mid-1980s and in the present mirroring the twenty-odd-year gap King uses in the book and with a great deal of care and attention paid to the backstories of all the characters."

Kajganich also mentioned that Warner Bros. wished for the adaptation to be rated R which he furthered by saying, "we can really honor the book and engage with the traumas that these characters endure.", while Kajganich spoke of Warner Bros. wanting the adaptation as a single film. On June 29, 2010, the screenplay was being re-written by Kajganich. He said that his dream choice for Pennywise would be Buster Keaton if he were still alive, and the Pennywise that Kajganich scripted being "less self-conscious of his own irony and surreality."

Cary Fukunaga (2012–2015)[]

"I am in the midst of rewriting the first script now. We're not working on the second part yet. The first script is just about the kids. It's more like The Goonies (1985) meets a horror film. We're definitely honoring the spirit of Stephen King, but the horror has to be modernized to make it relevant. That's my job, right now, on this pass. I'm working on making the horror more about suspense than visualization of any creatures. I just don't think that's scary. What could be there, and the sounds and how it interacts with things, is scarier than actual monsters."

On June 7, 2012, The Hollywood Reporter had revealed that Cary Fukunaga was boarding the project as director and will co-write the script with Chase Palmer, while Roy Lee and Dan Lin are producing, as with Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg of KatzSmith Productions. On May 21, 2014, Warner Bros. was announced to have moved the film to its New Line Cinema division, with overseer duties conducting by New Line's Walter Hamada and Dave Neustadter, along with Vice President of Production at Warner Bros., Niija Kuykendall. On December 5, 2014, in an interview with Vulture, Dan Lin announced that the first film will be a coming-of-age story about the children tormented by It and the second will skip ahead in time as those same characters band together to continue the fight as adults. Lin also stated that Fukunaga was only committed to directing the first film, though was currently closing a deal to co-write the second. Lin concluded by mentioning King, to which he remarked, "The most important thing is that [King] gave us his blessing. We didn't want to make this unless he felt it was the right way to go, and when we sent him the script, the response that Cary got back was, 'Go with God, please! This is the version the studio should make.' So that was really gratifying." Lin confirmed that Fukunaga would begin principal photography in Summer 2016.

On February 3, 2015, Fukunaga was interviewed by Slate wherein he spoke about It, while mentioning he has someone in mind for the role of Pennywise. On March 3, 2015, Fukunaga spoke of the film, particularly noting his goal to find the "perfect guy to play Pennywise". Fukunaga also revealed that he, Kajganich and Palmer had changed the names and dates in the script, adding, the spirit is similar to what he'd like to see in cinemas." On May 4, 2015, it was officially announced that Will Poulter had been cast to play Pennywise, after Fukunaga was "blown away" by his audition. Ty Simpkins was considered to play one of The Losers' Club members.

On May 25, 2015, it was reported that Fukunaga had dropped out as the director of It. According to TheWrap, Fukunaga clashed with the studio and didn't want to compromise his artistic vision in the wake of budget cuts by New Line, which greenlit the first film at $30 million. However, Fukunaga maintained that wasn't the case, with him stating he had bigger disagreements with New Line over the direction of the story: "I was trying to make an unconventional horror film. It didn't fit into the algorithm of what they knew they could spend and make money back on based on not offending their standard genre audience." He made mention that the budget was perfectly fine, as well as his desire to make Pennywise more than just the clown. Fukunaga concluded by stating, "We invested years and so much anecdotal storytelling in it. Chase and I both put our childhood in that story. So our biggest fear was they were going to take our script and bastardize it so I'm actually thankful that they are going to rewrite the script. I wouldn't want them to stealing our childhood memories and using that I was honoring King's spirit of it, but I needed to update it. King saw an earlier draft and liked it." On Fukunaga's departure, King wrote, "The remake of IT may be dead or undead but we'll always have Tim Curry. He's still floating down in the sewers of Derry."

Andy Muschietti (2015–2017)[]

"...the way Cary intended to execute the script is something that only he can talk about. i can say my version of IT highly emphasizes pennywise's most terrifying virtue, which is it's ability to materialise into your worse fear; i want to take people in a journey into pennywise's world through a disturbing, surrealistic and intoxicating experience that will leave nobody at ease."

On July 16, 2015, it was announced that Andy Muschietti was in negotiations to direct It, with New Line beginning a search for a new writer to tailor a script to Muschietti's vision, with the announcement also confirming the possible participation of Muschietti's sister, Barbara Muschietti, as a producer, and Richard Brener joining Hamada, Neustadter and Kuykendall to oversee the project. On April 22, 2016, it was indicated that Will Poulter, who was originally tapped to portray Pennywise in Fukunaga's version, had dropped out of the film due to a scheduling conflict and that executives were meeting with actors to portray the antagonist. On April 22, 2016, New Line Cinema set the film for a release of September 8, 2017.

On October 30, 2015, Muschietti was interviewed by Variety wherein he spoke about his vision of It, while mentioning Poulter was still in the mix for the role of Pennywise: "Poulter would be a great option. For me he is at the top of my list." He confirmed that next summer is the time for them to start shooting. It was decided to shoot It during the summer months to give them the time to work with the children who have the main roles in the first part of the film.[citation needed] Muschietti went on to say that "King described 50s' terror iconography," adding that he feels there is a whole world now to "rediscover, to update." He said there won't be any mummies or werewolves and that the "terrors are going to be a lot more surprising." On February 19, 2016, at the D.I.C.E. Summit 2016 producer Roy Lee confirmed that Fukunaga and Chase Palmer's original script had been rewritten, with Lee remarking, "It will hopefully be shooting later this year. We just got the California tax credit Dauberman wrote the most recent draft working with Muscetti, so it's being envisioned as two movies."

On May 5, 2016, in an interview with Collider, David Kajganich expressed uncertainty as to whether drafts of his original screenplay would be used by Dauberman and Muschietti, with the writer stating, "We know there's a new director, I don't know myself whether he's going back to any of the previous drafts or writing from scratch. I may not know until the film comes out. I don't know how it works! If you find out let me know."

On June 2, 2016, Jaeden Lieberher was confirmed to be portraying lead protagonist, Bill Denbrough. On June 2, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Bill Skarsgård was in final negotiations to star as Pennywise, whose cast will also include Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jeremy Ray Taylor. On June 2, 2016, there was a call for 100 background performers, with the background actor call going from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and by 4 p.m. more than 300 people had gone through; the casting call also asked for a marching band and period cars between 1970 and 1989. On February 18, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Owen Teague was set to portray Patrick Hocksetter. On June 21, 2016, it was officially announced that Nicholas Hamilton had been cast to play Henry Bowers. On June 21, 2016, Bloody Disgusting reported that Javier Botet was added to the cast shortly before filming commenced. On June 22, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Muschietti had chosen actress Sophia Lillis to portray Beverly Marsh. On June 24, 2016, Moviepilot reported that Stephen Bogaert was added to the cast shortly before filming commenced, with Bogaert portraying Al Marsh, the abusive father of Beverly Marsh.

On July 22, 2016, Barbara Muschietti was interviewed by Northumberland News' Karen Longwell, wherein she spoke about the filming locations on It, while mentioning the beauty of Port Hope being one of the reasons as to why it was chosen, while Muschietti added, "We were looking for an idyllic town, one that would be a strong contrast to the story. Port Hope is the kind of place we all wish we had grown up in: long summers riding bicycles, walks by the lake, a lovely main street, charming homes with green lawns, warm people." Muschietti also mentioned that 360 extras from the area, from adults to tiny kids, had been involved.

On August 11, 2016, at The CW TCA presentation for the upcoming series Frequency, producer Dan Lin spoke of the piece's comparison to Netflix's Stranger Things, with Lee describing It being a "homage to 80s movies", while remarking: "I think a great analogy is actually Stranger Things, and we're seeing it on Netflix right now. It's very much an homage to '80s movies, whether it's classic Stephen King or even Spielberg. Think about Stand by Me (1986) as far as the bonding amongst the kids. But there is a really scary element in Pennywise." Lin continued, speaking of how well the young cast has bonded in these first weeks of shooting. Lin stated, "We clearly had a great dynamic amongst the kids. Really great chemistry is always a challenging thing with a movie like It because you're casting kids who don't have a ton of experience, but it ended up being really natural. Each kid, like a The Goonies (1985) or Stand by Me (1986), has a very specific personality and they're forming the loser's club obviously We've spent a few months getting the kids to bond and now they're going to fight this evil, scary clown."

On February 9, 2017, at the press day for The Lego Batman Movie (2017), Lin confirmed that It is going to be rated R by the MPAA, to which he stated to Collider.com's Steve Weintraub, "If you're going to make a "Rated-R movie", you have to fully embrace what it is, and you have to embrace the source material. It is a scary clown that's trying to kill kids. They do have a scary clown that's taken over the town of Derry, so it's going to be rated R." On March 11, 2017, Muschietti, at the SXSW festival, spoke of an element of the pre-production phase in his attempt to keep Skarsgård separated from the film's child actors, wherein the actor wasn't introduced to the young cast until Pennywise's first encounter with the children: "It was something that we agreed on, and that's how it happened The day that he showed up on the stage, they fucking freaked out. Bill is like, seven-foot high, and I can't describe how scary he looks in person. He's a wiry man, crouching, making sounds, snotting, drooling, speaking in Swedish sometimes. Terrifying." Muschietti stated that the story had been moved forward, with the scenes with the young Losers Club shifting from the 1950s to the 1980s, while also describing their plot as "getting much wider," with new material not in the novel or the 1990 miniseries. However, Muschietti said he hoped it would still strike the same emotional resonance that the book did for him when he first read it: "It's all about trying to hit the core and the heart."

On July 12, 2017, Muschietti, in an interview with French magazine Mad Movies, spoke of when developing the R rated film, in which allowed him to go into very adult themes, which was championed from the people at New Line Cinema. He also stated that, "if you aimed for a PG-13 movie, you had nothing at the end. So we were very lucky that the producers didn't try to stop us. In fact it's more our own moral compass that sometimes showed us that some things lead us in places where we didn't want to go." In the same interview, on July 12, 2017, producer Barbara Muschietti added that there was only one scene that was deemed to be too horrific to feature in the new adaptation, in which she stated, "you won't find the scene where a kid has his back broken and is thrown in the toilets. We thought that the visual translation of that scene had something that was really too much." Muschietti concluded by emphasizing that nothing was removed from the original vision, nor was the violence of any event watered down.

On July 19, 2017, in an interview with Variety's Brent Lang, director Muschietti commented of the monstrous forms that It shall be taking, as well as noting the fact that they'll be very different from the incarnations present in King's story, in which he stated, "The story is the same, but there are changes in the things the kids are scared of. In the book they're children in the 50s, so the incarnations of the monsters are mainly from movies, so it's Wolf Man, the Mummy, Frankenstein, and Dracula. I had a different approach. I wanted to bring out deeper fears, based not only on movie monsters but on childhood traumas." While on the topic of what being the key to a successful horror film, Muschietti concluded by remarking that "Stay true to what scares you. If you don't respect that, you can't scare anyone." Muschietti explained how Skarsgård caught his attention to embody Pennywise, while pointing out that he didn't want the young cast to spend too much time with the actor when not shooting, and encouraged the cast to "maintain distance" between them, wherein Muschietti detailed: We wanted to carry the impact of the encounters to when the cameras were rolling. The first scene where Bill interacted with the children, it was fun to see how the plan worked. The kids were really, really creeped out by Bill. He's pretty intimidating because he's six-four and has all this makeup."

Port Hope Town Hall

Port Hope has gone under a number of changes to tranform it into the town of Derry.


Filming[]

Production designer Mara LePere-Schloop went to Bangor, Maine, to scope out locations including the Thomas Hill Standpipe, the land running alongside the Kenduskeag Stream that in It is called The Barrens, it was confirmed on March 31, 2015, and the Waterworks on the Penobscot River. LePere-Schloop said during her tour that they were hoping to shoot some scenes in the city and possibly get some aerial shots, although currently the leading locations for the majority of filming for the movie are in Yonkers, New York, and in Upstate New York. On May 31, 2016, Third Act Productions was confirmed to have applied to film interior and exterior scenes for It in the municipality of Port Hope, with filming slated for various locations around the municipality from July 11, 2016, up until July 18, 2016. Principal photography was confirmed to have begun in Toronto, with an original shooting schedule occurring from June 27 to September 6, 2016.

On July 8, 2016, Port Hope had undergone a number of changes to transform it into Derry; Port Hope Municipal hall is now Derry Public Library, The Port Hope Tourism Centre is now a City of Derry office, Ganaraska Financial is now Montgomery Financial, Gould's Shoes store front on Walton Street changed to a butcher shop, The Avanti Hair Design store front changed to Tony's Barber Shop, an empty storefront at 36 Walton Street changed to Reliance Cleaners, Queen Street Tattoo store front changed to Derry Scoop, a statue of Paul Bunyan was erected in Memorial Park, US flags now hang in place of Canadian flags downtown, and Port Hope Capitol Theatre had appeared to be showing Batman (1989) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), thus confirming the film's setting of 1989.

On July 11, 2016, preliminary shooting took place in Port Hope Town Hall, Memorial Park cenotaph, Queen Street between Walton and Robertson streets and the Capitol Theatre. On July 12, 2016, filming occurred between the intersection of Mill and Walton street, Walton Street bridge, and in front and behind 16–22 Walton Street and Port Hope Town Hall. Other shooting locations included Queen Street between Walton and Roberston street, and Memorial Park, on July 13. It was also reported, on July 14, that filming had been set up on the alley between Gould's Shoe's and Avanti Hair Design, and John and Hayward streets. On July 15, 2016, Cavan Street between Highland Drive and Ravine Drive, and Victoria Street South between Trafalgar Street and Sullivan Street. Filming moved to Cavan Street between Highland Drive and Ravine Drive, and Victoria Street South between Trafalgar Street and Sullivan Street on July 15. Filming in Port Hope ended on July 18, at Watson's Guardian Drugs.

Oshawa had been chosen by producers of It as the next filming location, and on July 20, 2016, filming notices were sent out to homes in the area of Eulalie Avenue and James Street, near downtown Oshawa, advising residents that filming of a new adaptation will commence shooting in the area from August 5 up until August 8, 2016. On July 29, 2016, it was announced the crew had been busy on the formerly vacant lot at the dead end of James Street constructing the set, in the form of a dilapidated old house. It was also remarked that the structure is a facade built around scaffolding that will be used for exterior shots. The set is composed of pre-fabricated modules that are being trucked in and put into place by IATSE carpenters.

On July 18, 2016, production crews had arrived in Riverdale, Toronto, with filming beginning at 450 Pape Ave, which is home to a circa 1902 heritage-designated building called Cranfield House, up until August 19, 2016. It was reported, on September 4, that filming had wrapped it's shooting in Oshawa, which included the haunted house location, as well as on Court and Fisher streets. Principal photography was confirmed to have ended in Toronto on September 21, 2016, with an altered shooting schedule occurring from June 27 to September 21, 2016, and ultimately with post-production initially beginning on September 14, 2016.

Cinematography[]

"One of my main quests is highlighting the eyes of the actors, indeed. I believe that what is captured in the eye goes beyond what can be seen in facial expressions alone. So I always look for a specific way to highlight the eyes of each actor. We did several tests on Pennywise's eyes during camera tests and in the end, I used a flashlight. We tested a lot of different lamps and I chose a particularly powerful one, which gave a very hard light. When Pennywise looks at the kids, I wanted his eyes to look more than his desire to eat them. I liked the idea that, in his eyes, we can see that he knows the fear he inflicts. A bit like when a mother looks hard at her children to scold them. More than just scary eyes, I thought that was what the character needed. So something had to be done to emphasize his look."

It was photographed with Arri Alexa XT Plus and Alexa Mini in a distributed aspect ratio of 2.39:1 by Chung Chung-hoon. For photographic lens, Chung used Panavision G Series Anamorphic Prime, Angenieux Optimo, and Primo Prime in which Chung stated is used "when Muschietti wants to use a wider lens or needs more frame space for visual effects. The look of the lenses is nearly the same. I mix them a lot and it works well." Cinematographer Chung and director Muschietti's discussions on the lighting of It were of temperature, with Muschietti wanting a hot summer with everyone sweating all the time, while admiring characters with shine on their faces. Both also discussed the balance of making something realistic, but with an element of intrigue that something is not right. Chung mulled over the notion of a period look for It, but ultimately felt the 1980s feel was conveyed through Claude Paré's sets and the work of Janie Bryant, in which Chung stated: "Trying to make a movie set in the 1980s look like the 1980s can be dangerous." Initially he had thought of photographing with 1980s lighting rules and gear, though later feeling it to be superfluous as Muschietti and he were trying to capture a natural look.

Muschietti himself found mainstream 1980s lighting too artificial thus preferred to through windows and bounce off the floor, allowing him to convey a feeling of intimacy with the characters, while admiring the approach of unsettling backlights and soft lights. Chung spoke of his experience on Stoker (2013), which taught him how to light quickly using one source: "I feel lucky because some directors will always say, Can you make more light? But this movie is very naturalistic. My responsibility is to the audience and to tell the story, and if you want this movie to scare people, a natural look is best."

Editing[]

"The final is two hours and nine minutes from memory, the first editor’s assembly was three hours and forty minutes and then after the director’s cut, we were hovering just under the three-hour mark. Then we went through studio notes and audience screenings to further work the cut. Not only are there film rhythms, but there are also filmmaker rhythms. Cutting a film is a marathon, not a sprint. You have to emotionally and physically pace yourself."

Film editor Jason Ballantine spoke of the difference in pacing and rhythm that comes with horror in It, in which a story like this was broken up into individual encounters with Pennywise for each of the characters, thus requiring a particular approach. Each segment had to have the appropriate rhythm and setup for the inevitable jump scare, to which he explained: "We were definitely conscious of trying to mix the rhythms up. Each encounter became somewhat more elaborate for the jump-scare in terms of what was shot. The first assembly was massively long So it did mean that screen time had to be dropped, either through the tightening of existing sequences or even scene deletions." Ballantine also spoke of the key factors when cutting It, which included King's novel, and Tommy Lee Wallace's 1990 miniseries.

In approaching a scene for It, Ballantine mapped out his day-to-day workflow from getting his dailies to sitting down with Muschietti looking through what he's pieced together. Upon receiving the dailies, Ballantine looked through the footage to see if he needs any pickups or reshoots to report back to set, resulting in Pearce Roemer, Elliott Traeger, Ferran Banchs and Daniel Miller to ensure all the footage had been copied over before returning the footage for formatting. From there, Ballantine asks his assistants to arrange the selects in script-order so that he can have a better understanding of the structure, as well as work at a faster pace without worrying about getting lost in the footage. Once Ballantine has a good chunk of the selects in the order he wants, the finished product from that batch will be about a third of the original length.

Bruhpog

Pennywise's gray costume was partly inspired by the clothing style of Renaissance.

Design[]

Costume design[]

On August 16, 2016, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, costume designer Janie Bryant spoke of crafting Pennywise's form-fitting suit and the inspirations to which it drew upon involving a number of bygone times among them the Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, and Victorian eras. Bryant explained that the costume incorporates all these otherworldly past lives, while highlighting the point that Pennywise is a clown from a different time. In designing Pennywise's costume, Bryant included a Fortuny pleating, which gives the costume an almost a crepe-like effect, to which Bryant remarked, "It's a different technique than what the Elizabethans would do. It's more organic, it's more sheer. It has a whimsical, floppy quality to it. It's not a direct translation of a ruff or a whisk, which were two of the collars popular during the Elizabethan period."

Bryant played with multiple eras as a way of reflecting Pennywise's immortality and added a "doll-like quality to the costume." She furthered this by stating "The pants being short, the high waistline of the jacket, and the fit of the costume is a very important element. It gives the character a child-like quality." Bryant spoke of the two puffs off the shoulder, sleeves and again on the bloomers, with her desire to create an "organic, gourd or pumpkin kind of effect", which includes the peplum at the waist, the flared, skirt-like fabric blossoming from below his doublet. She explains, "It helps exaggerate certain parts of the body. The costume is very nipped in the waist and with the peplum and bloomers it has an expansive silhouette." The main color of his costume is a dusky gray, but with a few splashes of color. She concludes the interview by stating, "The pompoms are orange, and then with the trim around the cuffs and the ankles, it's basically a ball fringe that's a combination of orange, red, and cinnamon. It's almost like Pennywise fades into his environment. But there are accents to pull out the definition of the gray silk."

Bryant explained that she wished for Pennywise to have an organic element about himself, with herself paying attention to King's description of Pennywise as being in a silvery gray. For Pennywise, Bryant's manufacturer built 17 different clown costumes to accommodate the action in the film. Muschietti spoke of the fact that the entity of Pennywise has been around for thousands of years, thus from an esthetic standpoint wished to depart from the 20th century clown framework, in which he stated "I think it looks cheap, and it's too related to social events and stuff and circus and stuff. Circus is fine, but I’m more aesthetically attracted to the old time, like the 19th century clown. And given that this guy has been around for centuries, I wondered myself why, why not, having an upgrade that was 1800s?"

Production design[]

"One of the main sets that we worked on one of them was an evil house. The evil house had three specific moments there's the exterior, there's the interior, and then the basement, where the well is where Pennywise accesses the sewers and the cisterns where his lair is I also wanted to have this spooky tree looming at the house so we decided to build it until a crew member found this tree, driving to the office here one morning. So we bought the tree from the owner after negotiating."

Production designer Claude Paré commented that apart from 29 Neibolt Street, that the other main component of Muschietti's It were both the sewers and the cistern, to which Muschietti and himself worked every morning for roughly three months observing, looking at the plans and attempting to figure out what was the best pattern for themselves on stages they had access to a rather precise stage, though having to make profit as much as they could, of what they had. Paré discussed about knowing that Muschietti and himself had to have a culvert entrance in The Barrens, somewhere in or around Toronto.

The construction of 29 Neibolt Street was one of the great challenges of the production, with Paré later explaining he wanted the haunted house of the film to be visually strong and in line with the decor of the great films of the horror genre such as the Bates house from Psycho (1960), or the Overlook Hotel of The Shining (1980). Paré worked extensively with Muschietti to imagine a haunted house that unleashes a presence that is discovered to be a character in its own right. The exterior of 29 Neibolt Street was built in Oshawa, Ontario, with the interior scenes being filmed in a former hospice.

Six months after principal photography, Paré built the clown room on a sound-stage at Pinewood Toronto Studios as Muschietti felt the Neibolt Street sequence required more scares to which Paré stated Muschietti had the concept of wanting to have clowns from different eras, in which Paré said: "There were real clowns and fake clowns. There was lots of work put into dressing mannequins and putting some heads on them with masks and wigs and so on. Some of them were real people, so they start moving as you see in the movie." Conceptually, Muschietti himself spoke of how he wished to keep the cistern more grounded and real, instead of going into a world of fantasy: "I decided to do a compelling and surrealistic but still grounded physical place." Paré originally had wished that the sewers were composed of bricks, due to it being of more period-accuracy, however, the cost was deemed too great thus his team and himself decided to go with formed concrete which was constructed with a mixture of planks and plywood sheets. Paré spoke of the special attention paid to the water drainage for the sewer, as well as the water marks that he said echoed those of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Paré later explained that his team looked at the location, with them later having kids climb up and down to which later resulted in the construction of the well on the stage, which connects Pennywise's tunnel, giving access to the tunnels, which in turn gives access to the cistern: "which is the giant set that we're shooting now, and in which Pennywise has his wagon and on top of which there's a pile of all the clothes and toys of the dead kids over the many centuries." The vortex of dead children was also a creation of Muschietti and Paré, with floating being a "metaphor for dying," according to Muschietti. Paré had to get down to logistics with conversations taking place about how many bodies would be floating, as well as the speed at which the children were spinning around, with Paré remarking: "We didn't want to go over a year worth of kids, because all the kids that would have been dead would have been eaten in the 27 years that Pennywise was away So the kids of that era are basically a reserve for the next 27 years."

Sound design[]

Chris Jenkins and Michael Keller were sound engineers for the film, tasked with sound mixing, while sound editor Victor Ray Ennis supervised the process. Director Muschietti was clear unto the sound engineers about every aspect of the soundscape, especially when it came to dynamics. During the final mix there were moments when Muschietti conducted the peaks and valleys of the sound design and score, to which sound designer Paul Hackner stated, "It was in these moments when perceived silence, created by small transients such as water drips, foot creaks, or actual silence, were revealed, resulting in a dynamic mix."

Visual effects[]

"Basically what they did was bring in all the stunt performers into a gym, and they learned the choreography and they motion-captured this. We built really quick CG assets for all the characters, including Pennywise, and we planned out all his transformations and the action. In the end, you could have the shape of both characters, but both of them could have the textures of one or the other. With some simulated effects we'd be able to balance all of that out and really time it to what [Muschietti] was looking for.

Nicholas Brooks was the overall visual effects supervisor and the visual effects company Rodeo FX worked on most of the visual effects on It, completing 95 shots for the film. Rodeo FX was tasked with creating a number of CG assets to either enhance or even completely replace Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise, amongst others being the giant abandoned cistern within the heart of Pennywise's lair. Both from a technical and creative standpoint, the various shapes created for Pennywise presented a large challenge for Rodeo FX's modeling, rigging and creature FX teams. The visual effects company Atomic Arts were initially brought in to create the paper boat sequence for It, which covers much of the first trailers, to which all of the shots were used in the final film and the company were awarded many more shots in Muschietti's piece. Atomic Arts highlighted the challenges in creating the paper boat sequence, as Muschietti and Chung shot in it bright sunshine. Amalgamated Dynamics worked on the special makeup effects on It.

Producer Barbara Muschietti stated that It would use computer-generated imagery as a support tool in every circumstance; never as an element standing on its own in regard to its relationship with practical effects, to which she stated, "In every film, in this day and age, there is some CG, but we will use it as little as possible." Andy Muschietti spoke of It containing a small amount of CGI, with much of Pennywise being Skarsgård and his face: "The rest it's a shape-shifting monster, and I wanted to bring that to the screen, when he's basically trying to throw everything he has at them.", while signifying the importance of design and execution in the eternal discussion of practical versus CG.

Company 3's Stephen Nakamura collaborated with Muschietti to color grade It, completing the film's digital intermediate in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve at EFILM, spoke of the concepts about the look of Muschietti's film that evolved during production, and while continuing it in the DI, the idea that a lot of the film takes place in fairly high-key situations, not the kind of dark, shadowy world some horror films exist in. Nakamura said, "It's a period piece. It's set in a small town that sort of looks like this pleasant place to be, but all this wild stuff is happening!" On the work connected on Pennywise during the digital intermediate, Nakamura spoke of having alpha channel mattes cut around Pennywise's eyes for every shot he's in, while using the color corrector to make changes to his eyes:" Other moments Nakamura mentioned was the battle between the kids and Pennywise underground, wherein the setting shifts the story into darkness, with such an effect working powerfully in the 14-footlambert standard digital cinema version and even more so in the 31-footlambert HDR pass which was completed for the film's Dolby Cinema version, in contrast to Nakamura's work on Tomorrowland (2015), with him explaining: "In the Dolby Cinema version, the scene can feel significantly darker but also contain more detail. You're pushing more light through the images overall and the contrast ratio is massive so dark scenes can be even darker but we can hold onto every scary detail. It’s a very effective tool to have for this kind of movie."

Gallery[]

Videos[]

Themes[]

  • The number 27 is involved a lot in the film. This is the second adaptation of novel IT, being released 27 years after the 1990 miniseries. The actor who played Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) turned 27 just a little more than a month before the movie's release date. This pays homage to the novel, in which it is stated that "It" returns every 27 years.
  • IT is currently the highest grossing horror movie and Stephen King adaptation as of 2022, following the reason the film grossed so far over $706 million worldwide.
  • As Georgie is about to die, there is a cat that witnesses it. Likely a reference to "Cat's Eye", a movie based off two of King's short stories: Quitters, Inc. and The Ledge.
  • The film makes a reference to thrash metal bands, Metallica and Anthrax; Reginald "Belch" Huggins is shown wearing a shirt for the two.
  • A deleted scene shows that Georgie escapes his death by grabbing the paper boat too fast for Pennywise to catch his arm and leaving. Although this was filmed as a joke.
  • Another deleted scene shows an alternate ending when Bill arrives back home. He shows his mother the scar on his hand and as they drive off, the camera zooms to a drain as we hear some raindrops indicating It's survival.
  • When Sophia Lillis auditioned for the role of Beverly, her hair was too short since her characters hair is described as "long red hair" in the 1986 novel. She had to wear hair extensions during filming, until director Andy Muschietti decides to have it all cut off in one scene. Muschietti's original plan was to plant new strands of hair among her extensions so that she wouldn't have to cut her actual hair in the process. "But it wasn't really working," she admits. "It didn't really look real enough so he went all up and said, 'You know what? Just cut it all off. Hopefully you don't cut your hair or ruin it too much.'
  • IT holds a many similarities with the Netflix series, Stranger Things. Coincidentally, Finn Wolfhard, who plays Richie Tozier, also stars in Stranger Things as Mike Wheeler.
  • IT premiered in Los Angeles on September 5, 2017, and was released in the United States on September 8, 2017, in 2D and IMAX. The film set numerous box office records and grossed over $700 million worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing R-rated film of all time. IT received positive reviews, with critics praising the performances, direction, cinematography and musical score, and many calling it one of the best Stephen King adaptations. IT has received numerous awards and nominations. IT was nominated for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie. In addition, the motion picture has been named as one of the best films of 2017 by various ongoing critics, appearing on several critics' end-of-year lists

Sequel[]

Main article: IT: Chapter Two

IT: Chapter Two was released on September 6, 2019.

References[]

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