14 DAY TRIAL // Pennywise the clown is coming back to life, this time on the silver screen. Following the announcement of March last year that Stephen King’s incredibly popular novel “It” would be made into a feature film, the first details on it are starting to emerge. Dread Central got an interview with screenwriter David Kajganich - and the scoop on the upcoming horror film.
As fans must know, one of the biggest challenges in turning the novel into film is the handling of the source material. Following the hit that was the ABC television miniseries in the ‘90s, and given the fact that the novel is over 1,000 pages long, it’s no wonder that confirmation that a feature film would be made sparked a lot of debate on dedicated forums. Coming to counter rumors that “It” will be turned into a franchise (perhaps even the never-ending type that Hollywood is so fond of), screenwriter David Kajganich says only one film will be made.
Which, again, brings to the table the issue of how the source material will be handled – quite in vicious circle fashion. Kajganich, as far as he’s concerned, will do his best to do justice to the book. “In all of my talks with the studio, it has only ever been discussed as a single feature film. The book’s length is clearly more suited to a mini-series and I understand very well why they went that route the last time around, but I think the book’s content is really more appropriate for cinema. I told the studio from the beginning that I felt I needed to be able to write for an R rating, since I wanted to be as candid as the novel about the terrible things the characters go through as kids. They agreed and off I went,” the writer says.
“I think the biggest difference is that we’re working with about two-thirds the onscreen time they had for the miniseries. That sounds dire, I know, but it doesn’t necessarily mean two-thirds the amount of story. I’m finding as many ways as I can to make certain scenes redundant by deepening and doubling others. To me, this is an interesting process because it has the effect of thematically intensifying the whole, but it can lead to dramatic surprises. Certain scenes I thought would be crucial to the coherence of the whole ended up cut, while other scenes, which were somewhat cursory in the book, ended up being pivotal in the script,” Kajganich adds.
In making these specifications, the writer hopes to put the minds of millions of fans at ease: by turning such a sizeable novel into a single feature film, none of its quality will be lost. At the same time, the film will not be worse than the television miniseries (which is still considered among the scariest productions to date) on the same grounds, meaning less onscreen time. For more on this film and to see how it progresses, make sure you keep an eye on this space.