Andy Muschietti’s ‘IT’ Is Going Places The Mini-Series Never Did
Are audiences ready for another dose of Pennywise, The Dancing Clown? There are only a few months to prepare as the hype for Andy Muschietti’s IT grows. Director Andres Muschietti (Mama) spoke with French magazine Mad Movies about holding nothing back with his version of Stephen King’s novel IT. “This is an R rated movie. I’m very happy about that because it allows us to go into very adult themes,” said Muschietti.
He continued with this:
“Each ‘loser’ knows a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights. Beverly’s case is, of course, the worst, because it’s about sexual abuse on a minor. But each kid is neglected one way or the other. Bill is like a ghost in his own home: nobody sees him because his parents can’t get over Georgie’s death. Of course, Ben is bullied at school. 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. Long story short, there are all sorts of difficult situations, and we had the chance to tell them in a movie that faces directly those conflicts. In particular, the families of the young actors were very open-minded, so we could tell the about subjects that are normally very touchy.”
Andres Muschietti further went on to talk about this film always being an R-rating. He said this to Mad Movies, “From our very first discussion with the people from New Line, it was understood that the movie was gonna be rated ‘R.’ Of course, it was already crazy that they started a story revolving around the death of children. But if you aimed for a PG-13 movie, you had nothing at the end…”
It sounds like the relatively infamous moments the 1990 mini-series left out will find a place in this film. With PG-13 being profitable for studios but a sore subject for horror fans, Andres Muschietti’s bold choice is a gamble. Hopefully, the R-rating pays off as this is the first part of a two-part series.
Will you see IT? What do you think of the R-rating? Let me know in the comments below.
“The Losers Club” is played by Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jeremy Ray Taylor. Javier Botet will play The Leper, and Nicholas Hamilton plays Henry Bowers. Bill Skarsgard is playing Pennywise.
The film will be in theaters September 8, 2017.
