Cary Fukunaga breaks silence on IT departure

Last Updated on July 22, 2021

A few months ago, we were all rocked by the disheartening news that Cary Fukunaga, who made such an indelible impression with the first season of True Detective, had departed the feature adaptation of Stephen King’s IT. Fukunaga was an exciting and bold choice to helm the epic film – said to be a two-parter – but there was also little surprise to find he wasn’t exactly jibing with New Line Cinema. Clashes over budget, location and casting were apparently the main culprits, but there’s also a good chance Fukunaga wanted to make a film more dramatically challenging than his studio.

For the first time, Fukunaga has opened up – slightly – about his departure from IT. Naturally, he’s not giving up much, but for now, here’s what he had to say to EW:

It’s never easy. Chase [Palmer] and I had been working on that script for probably three years. There was a lot of our childhood and our experience in it.

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.”

Fukunaga is being very diplomatic here, refusing to throw New Line under the bus. And rightly so. One day we’ll know the whole story. For now, chalk it up to a marriage that wasn’t meant to last.

As for the future of IT, it appears Andy Muschietti (MAMA) has taken over the monumental task of bringing IT to the big screen. Clearly no easy task, especially for a man working on only his second feature.