Andy Muschietti talks IT Part 2 & classic movie monsters

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If you are new to this site, or just don't read my posts, then you might not know that I am really godd*mn excited about the upcoming feature adaptation of Stephen King's IT from director Andy Muschietti.

I have been grabbing up any and all news on the flick I can find and truth be told, usually, I let most of it slide because AITH is not, in fact, "a Stephen King's It fan-site" as I would more than happily make it.

Joking, not joking.

Today I found an all-new interview with director Andy Muschietti where he talks directing the second movie (kinda) and some other choice topics. You can check out his thoughts on IT – and MY thoughts on HIS thoughts – below.

Muschietti on IT PART 2:

We are doing that. We’ll probably have a script for the second part in January. Ideally, we would start prep in March. Part one is only about the kids. Part two is about these characters 30 years later as adults, with flashbacks to 1989 when they were kids.

What kind of response does he get from fans of the book?

Most of the people are excited about seeing a good adaptation. There are naysayers. Those tend to be the people who are fans of the miniseries rather than the fans of the book. People who read the book and got the book, they’re not crazy about the miniseries. It was a very watered-down version. It didn’t contain the darkness that the book had. They couldn’t make something for TV about a clown who eats children.

Hurm-hurm. Cough. Sneeze. Bullsh*t, Muschietti. I am a fan of BOTH the novel and the 1990 mini-series. Granted the book is my favorite book of all time (true story) and the mini-series is a DVD I like to throw on here and there, but all the same, I dig both versions. Moving on…

Why he picked Bill Skarsgard to play Pennywise:

I wanted to stay true to the essence of the character. I knew that I didn’t want to go the road of Tim Curry [who played Pennywise in the TV miniseries]. Bill Skarsgard caught my attention. The character has a childish and sweet demeanor, but there’s something very off about him. Bill has that balance in him. He can be sweet and cute, but he can be pretty disturbing.

He didn’t stay in character when the camera stopped, but we did try to maintain distance between him and the kids. We wanted to carry the impact of the encounters to when the cameras were rolling. The first scene where Bill interacted with the children, it was fun to see how the plan worked. The kids were really, really creeped out by Bill. He’s pretty intimidating because he’s six-four and has all this makeup.

And yadda, yadda, yadda. The full interview goes on and Muschietti talks about directing child actors and Stephen King's reaction – which you can read about HERE – and a number of other topics. HOWEVER, there is one part of the interview that struck me like a silver-shot to the left eye.

Muschietti claims the new film will not sport the classic movie monsters, including The Wolfman, Dracula, The Mummy, and Frankenstein!

The story is the same, but there are changes in the things the kids are scared of. In the book they’re children in the ’50s, so the incarnations of the monsters are mainly from movies, so it’s Wolf Man, the Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula. I had a different approach. I wanted to bring out deeper fears, based not only on movie monsters but on childhood traumas.

Okay, okay. First off, Muschietti does say "not only on" movie monsters, meaning that there could be some famous monsters thrown in there. We'll have to wait and see. Truthfully, I'm not against cutting out Dracula (the version in the book is barely Dracula and/or a vampire) and The Mummy and Frankenstein can go ahead and be tossed out as well. No love lost. 

But The Wolfman is a must, Muschietti! 

Now, we have seen some screenshots from the trailer that show The Wolfman (or at least his talons) so I'm probably getting worked up over nothing. Right? But let us know what you think on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!

STEPHEN KING'S IT hits theaters nationwide September 8th.