by Kevin Muller
The road for Pennywise to have his day in the sun, or lurking around in the sewers, hasn’t been an easy one. For years, the project had “floated” around with no hope of every gracing the silver screen. After his success of the incredible 2014 “True Detective,” Cary Fukanaga soon boarded the project that he aimed for a 2016 release. Cary and the studio constantly clashed over the tone of the Stephen King novel. Cary wanted to do more of a slow burn film, while the studio wanted to, as Cary put it, make a typical jump scare horror film. In a later article, I will review the screenplay that he originally wrote with Chase Palmer that was a dated 2014 script. Soon after his departure, Andres (Andy) Muschetti, stepped into the director’s chair. His 2013 film “Mama” wasn’t my favorite film but he seemed serious on bringing something good to this material.
Our first glimpse of Pennywise came back last summer with a facial shot of the character. Then a few months later an official full body pose came out. The one thing that stuck out about this interpretation of the murderous clown is that the wardrobe looked like it was from another century. In actuality that is true of the novel’s presentation of him. He has been here for hundreds of years and became a clown during the Victorian age. Muschetti had already nailed the look of the character. Some people were and are still iffy about how the costume will look in motion. Well, the poster and trailer have been released and I think we are in for one hell of a ride
Cinephellas 