By the mid-80’s Stephen King had already made a name for himself writing grim fantasy epics such as the grim, apocalyptic saga The Stand and the bizarre, universe-hopping The Dark Tower. But his 1986 opus IT came chock full of things both wonderful and bizarre, from teenage bullies getting their comeuppance to abusive spouses who won’t go away. But nothing could prepare our cultural imagination for the novel’s unforgettable titular villain. This ancient, interdimensional shapeshifter was big enough to cause trouble for characters from King’s other works. (The Shining‘s Dick Halloran narrowly escapes a racist lynching instigated by the beast and The Dark Tower’s godlike Turtle entity is seemingly unable to defeat it.) But It is unforgettable in its most benign, yet also most horrific guise: Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
When Tim Curry donned Pennywise’s fright wig for the 1990 miniseries based on the book it induced coulrophobia in a generation of young horror fans and pretty much codefied the “Monster Clown” trope. But everyone really should have foreseen the inevitability of a remake. After all, the one predictable thing about Pennywise is that every few decades, he returns… But not even Pennywise is immune to the unbelievable power of Hollywood Development Hell and the film has languished for seven long years. But no more. Now there’s a new director and a new clown in town and here is what we know about all of IT so far.
IT Doesn’t Change, But The Times Do.
Pennywise’s preferred victims are children and it is responsible for an unexplained cycle of child murders in the fictional town of Derry, Maine that occurs every thirty years. It is successful at this modus operandi for a long, long time until the story’s heroes – a group of kids so far on society’s fringes that they adopt the moniker of The Losers Club – defeat It, only to have Pennywise come stalking them in adulthood for revenge.
The two time frames of the original miniseries split the story into two parts for a combined run time of 187 minutes. For years it was assumed the feature film remake would likewise consist of two movies, but it is now confirmed to consist just of one. The novel spanned time between the 50’s and the 80’s while the miniseries adjusted the range to the 60’s and the 90’s. It has long been assumed that the remake would likewise bump up to chronology and a careful look at this image from the director’s Instagram feed confirms this once and for all. Speaking of…
