The proposed reboot of Stephen King’s It suffered a major blow when True Detective‘s Cary Fukunaga exited the project over Memorial Day weekend. New Line quickly bounced back from his departure, enlisting Mama director Andres Muschietti at the helm to ensure things continued smoothly. While Muschietti possesses his own style that elevated the Guillermo Del Toro-produced monster flick from forgettable bargain bin fodder to a solid B-movie, it was Fukanaga’s vision for It that stirred up such feverish interest. His unmistakable aesthetic flair transposed over King’s epic source material promised to finally do the tale of Derry’s evil clown justice.
And so, with his exit came the usual rumbles of “creative differences” that often accompany these types of circumstances, along with talk of a budgetary squabble. Now, via a new interview with EW, a little more light has been shed on what really went down:
“Ultimately, we and New Line have to agree on the kind of movie we want to make, and we just wanted to make different movies. It’s like a relationship: you can try to make the other person who you want them to be, but it’s impossible really to change. You just have to work.”
He goes on to say how it wasn’t easy to walk away from a project he and co-writer Chase Palmer had worked on for three years. “There was a lot of our childhood and our experience in it,” he adds, most of which probably won’t make it to the big screen. New Line’s plans to push forward with new director Muschietti also includes time allotted for the helmer to wrangle the script in order to suit his specific vision. At this stage, the plan is to still split the movie into two-parts with the first focusing on the kids of Derry, Maine as they tussle with the ancient evil dwelling within their hometown, and the second picking up when the self-dubbed “Loser’s Club” are adults.
As pre-production on It continues to push on, Fukunaga is moving onto new modes of storytelling and exhibition, with his Idris Elba-starring Beasts Of No Nation headed for theaters and Netflix in October.