This doesn't look good for the movie

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

The Nameless

M-O-O-N - That spells Nameless
Jul 10, 2011
2,080
8,261
42
The Darkside of the Moon (England really)
Unfortunately I ran accross this on Yahoo. It seems the studio don't want a character based unique horror movie, they want a scares based conventional horror.

Cary Fukunaga Explains Quitting It: Studio Wanted “Inoffensive, Conventional” Horror Movie - Yahoo Movies UK

Director Cary Fukunaga has spoken at length on why he walked away from the long in-development big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s novel ‘It’ - and his remarks paint a fairly scathing portrait of his producers at Warner Bros and New Line Cinema.

Speaking to Variety, the ‘Beasts of No Nation’ and ‘True Detective’ director denies he left the project over budgetary disputes as had been initially reported, and says he was constantly at loggerheads with the studio over the creative direction of the planned two-part movie.

Fukunaga had been attached to ‘It’ since 2012, and says he “was trying to make an unconventional horror film. It didn’t fit into the algorithm of what they knew they could spend and make money back on based on not offending their standard genre audience.

“Our budget was perfectly fine. We were always hovering at the $32 million mark, which was their budget. It was the creative that we were really battling. It was two movies. They didn’t care about that.

“In the first movie, what I was trying to do was an elevated horror film with actual characters. They didn’t want any characters. They wanted archetypes and scares.

“I wrote the script. They wanted me to make a much more inoffensive, conventional script. But I don’t think you can do proper Stephen King and make it inoffensive.”

If Fukunaga’s remarks are to be believed, it would seem to be a pretty sad reflection on the attitudes currently at play at New Line Cinema - a studio which is deeply rooted in horror, notably the ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchise (New Line is often affectionately known as The House That Freddy Built).

Interestingly, Fukunaga would seem to allude to Freddy Krueger when hinting at his efforts to make iconic villain Pennywise “more than just the clown, after 30 years of villains that could read the emotional minds of characters and scare them.”

Memorably portrayed by Tim Curry in the 1990 TV mini-series adaptation of King’s novel, Pennywise was set to be played by Will Poulter in Fukunaga’s film, although it is unclear whether or not the actor is still on board now that the project is up in the air.

It doesn’t inspire much confidence to think that the studio would hire a highly respected and intelligent director to adapt an acclaimed, very lengthy and quite challenging novel by Stephen King - but then want nothing more than a generic, safe horror film.

But Fukunaga insists this was the case, and that his efforts to make a bold, character-driven film were not met with favour.

“It was being rejected. Every little thing was being rejected and asked for changes. Our conversations weren’t dramatic. It was just quietly acrimonious. We didn’t want to make the same movie. We’d already spent millions on pre-production.

“I certainly did not want to make a movie where I was being micro-managed all the way through production, so I couldn’t be free to actually make something good for them. I never desire to screw something up. I desire to make something as good as possible.”

Still, on a consolatory closing note, Fukunaga says one key figure approved of his direction: “[Stephen] King saw an earlier draft and liked it.”

‘Mama’ director Andy Muschietti has been reported to be in talks to take over on ‘It,’ working from an entirely new screenplay.
 

Steffen

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,233
12,800
The Conjuring. A really nice throwback to Seventies era atmospheric films like Amityville Horror and The Omen. Other than that, nothing really stands out at the moment. Mama was great but undermined by the ending.
 

Steffen

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,233
12,800
The thing with a book like "IT," is that a proper adaptation needs to be at least 10 hours worth of storytelling in cable-tv format. But I doubt the economics of producing a limited series with high production values would be regarded as feasible by the networks.
 

muskrat

Dis-Member
Nov 8, 2010
4,518
19,564
Under your bed
Last I heard he was gonna update the damn thing anyway, and use a much younger cast ( for the grown-ups ). This sounded like crap to me, but who knows? At least he was pushing for TWO movies. Can't see fitting IT into a single flick (even if it's three hours long). And I like what he said about IT being about more than just the damn clown. S'how I feel, too.

Now what? A single movie? One that's been pruned, hacked, censored and spi-shined for the 'easily offended' masses? God, why bother? We already have that with the damn John Boy vs Dr. Frank N Furter TV flick.

It boggles the mind (no pun intended), how, in this day and age, every Tom, Dick, and Mormon housewife can get huge, tent pole, multipicture francise deals out of their lame and barely legible 'young adult' books (Twilight, Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Insurgent, yawn) but the world's most famous and recognized author can't get a decent movie adaption from any of his horror stuff.
 

Robert Gray

Well-Known Member
It never looked good for the movie. We have to accept that some books defy translation into films due to their length, basis in characters rather than plot/stereotype, and style. I dread any attempts to convert Mr. King's books into movies because I have as of yet not been pleased with any of them. Perhaps someday, as making movies gets less expensive due to technological improvement and more true independents exist, we might see some good attempts (but they will always fall short), but for now you have a better chance of winning the lottery. Think about the themes and problems faced by the Losers, the issues that made them the interesting characters in the first place, and ask yourself if Hollywood was ever going to have the stomach to do it? To diverge to another set of books, think about some of the characters in the Dark Tower series. How likely do you think you are going to see Detta portrayed on the screen in her full, terrible insanity and bigotry as she was in the book? At best you "might" see some pathetic watered down version. Stephen King's stories are about people. People are defined and made interesting by their flaws, pain, and experiences. Hollywood horror films do the opposite.
 

mjs9153

Peripherally known member..
Nov 21, 2014
3,494
22,165
and not just horror,Robert..I was very pleased with the LOTR series,by Peter Jackson,but then he went off the rails with The Hobbit..totally off base,just garbage,IMOP..when will filmmakers learn that the public wants the story pretty much as read,without their creative tweaking..I did think that SK's The Mist,The Green Mile,Shawshank Redemption,and Stand By Me were well done..of course you cant translate everything to screen,but thought those were good..and the Shining opening,and first hour or so,were really good too..
and screw cable tv..there just is no replacement for the story that is written as R rated and then make it pg or less for cable audiences..and then they go,what is the big deal about Stephen King,that wasn't so scary..
 

Mr. Gray Robert

Well-Known Member
Aug 28, 2015
61
178
Dallas, Texas
The thing with a book like "IT," is that a proper adaptation needs to be at least 10 hours worth of storytelling in cable-tv format. But I doubt the economics of producing a limited series with high production values would be regarded as feasible by the networks.
I agree. Should be a HBO mini series.
 

Steffen

Well-Known Member
Aug 9, 2015
2,233
12,800
Apart from the long-form storytelling in a cable series, I've noticed that cable shows tend to go a lot further in terms of showing things considered too "taboo" for films. R. Gray cites a good example with Odetta Holmes. I am disappointed that this book won't be adapted, because there is a whole lot of material not covered in the original mini-series that deserves to be filmed. But I'd rather see the project die than suffer through a tepid 2 hour feature film version.

Last thing: I'd love to have seen Willem Dafoe as Pennywise. He was great as the Green Goblin and sublime as Max Shreck in Shadow of the Vampire.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjs9153