A Bloody Good Time 12.08.11: Building A Better Pennywise

Posted by Joseph Lee on 12.08.2011

A remake of Stephen King's classic It is in the works! 411's Joseph Lee takes a look at what to keep, what to throw out and what to change in order for the remake to work in this week's A Bloody Good Time!

Opening Logo courtesy of Benjamin J. Colón (Soul Exodus)

Welcome to the A Bloody Good Time.

In two weeks time we look at the upcoming horror films of 2012. In three weeks we look at the best of the year. That's where I need your help. I already have a list growing of 2011 horror films I have yet to see. If it's mainstream I've likely watched it already and it has NOT been a good year for most mainstream horror. I'm looking for indie suggestions. Hit me with some in the comments.

Speaking of comments, let's look at what you said for last week's Planet of the Apes retrospective.

APrince66 replied: As huge fan of the Apes series, I was really looking forward to the column this week. I still, every couple of years, will watch the series again over a rainy weekend. Its really dated, but I love that periods effects, make up and locations. The originals shock ending ranks up their with Vader as Luke's father as total mind F's for a young me.

The make-up and the ending of the first film are the best parts of the entire franchise, pre-Rise. At least that's my opinion.

FCT in 3D said: The Apes series has always been a curious one to me. With an absolute timeless classic in the original its amazing it has survived this long, especially with Burton's simply AWFUL entry. The reboot gives me hope that this franchise can become what Fox envisioned so long ago. There is an endless supply of material in the franchise and an almost unlimited time frame to work off of. Just do NOT touch the original and try to remake that. If they play this right and blow out a quality entry every 2-3 years.. this franchise could go on indefinitely.

You're a lot more optimistic than I am. I originally thought Rise was going to be awful, and it blew me away. And yet I'm still almost sure Hollywood will find a way to screw up the franchise yet again.

Brian in Vancouver responded: While there are only 3 movies in the series, I think perhaps your readers might enjoy a similar treatment with the 'Cube' franchise. I for one still rank the original 'Cube' as one of my all time fave movies, far better than most 'sci fi blockbusters', and both sequels were actually quite serviceable/decent. I think/believe that the Cube concept is actually something that could be re-done again and again, with different people stuck in the cube, as part of the main thing that made it so interesting is seeing the various personality types interact, and trying to understand/predict how you personally might behave if stuck in this situation. The great part about Cube is not THAT particular cast (though most were good, especially the black cop & David Hewett, and the math savant guy), but how they interacted with each other when faced with something you could not possibly have any reference point to rely on. LOVED the movie, despite the shoe string budget.

Love the first Cube, and hate the next two. Hypercube was ridiculously dumb and Zero was just boring. But I might take a look at it eventually.

Now let's talk about a book that's very near and dear to my heart.



I love Stephen King's IT. It's my favorite book of all time. Notice I don't say the best, that would be silly. In terms of writing, it's not even King's best. But it is my favorite. It has so many elements that I both identify with and fear. I first read the thing when I was a kid and avoided sewers for a week. Yes. of all the things in this book, it was the fact that the being was in the sewers that messed me up.

The miniseries is very flawed, but I still enjoy it. The first part that focuses on the child actors is really, really good and could have just been the whole movie if they wanted to make it that way. Yeah a whole half of the book would be missing but considering how bad the adult portion is, I think it'd be better off. On top of that, Tim Curry as Pennywise is really fun to watch. He's only scary once in the entire film, and that's the scene I recently chose as one of the most terrifying movie scenes of all time: Georgie's death.



But as an overall film, it could use a lot of work. Which is why when a remake was announced, I wasn't too broken up about it. I'm not even upset at the thought of losing Tim Curry as Pennywise. He was great in the role, but I'd love to see a more serious and scary take on it. Less of this and more of this.

So the more I thought about it, the more I decided I should share with you, my ways to make a great adaptation of the book. Let's look at how they can do it.

Make it a two part film.

One thing we do know about the remake is that Warner Bros. really wants to condense the entire thing into one feature-length film. The screenwriter says it's possible, I call shenanigans. Have you actually read the book? It's over 1,000 pages long! Sure, a lot of that can be removed but a lot of it can't. If a book with no depth or good writing whatsoever like Breaking Dawn can get a two-part movie, surely IT can stand to do the same. The miniseries already showed you how.

If you're going to remake IT, then the first movie should be about the kids (we'll come back to this later). Start it off with some initial killings, have the kids each encounter Pennywise in one of his various forms, build the relationships and then send them into the sewers to try and stop It. Give part one a definitive ending, but do one of those during-the-credits sequences (I recommend the death of Adrian Mellon) to set up for a part two. If the first part makes money, make the second half all about the adults and their efforts to finish It off.

Do not make the children older.

This is what I worry about the most, because I've read they want to do this with Pet Sematary. They want to make Ellie Creed a teenager and make it all about her. Do not do this. You have a plethora of really good child actors in order to make this work. If you make it within a reasonable amount of time, you may be able to get Chloe Grace Moretz for Beverly Marsh. If not, raid the cast of Super 8, raid the Diary of a Wimpy Kid franchise. Get some child actors that are not going to stink up the joint.

This is the one area that you can't screw up on, because the kids have to bond and we have to believe that relationship is natural. It's the core focus of the book, the relationship between the children and how a mysterious force brings them together. Sure, you technically could do it with teenagers, but who in the hell wants to see that? The thing about the book that is so scary is that kids are targeted, and not even children are safe from this monster. If you have Pennywise going after teens, it's just another slasher movie.



Modernize it.

You may cry foul over this, but hear me out. In the book, the childhood portion is set in the fifties and the adult portion in the eighties. While you could, very easily, make that same time period and have it work, I think a new direction that sets the film in the 80s/present day could be a new interesting way to take it. I'm not saying have the adults talk about how they get no cell phone coverage (although a throwaway line about no coverage in the sewers wouldn't hurt you) and they looked up Pennywise on Google, but just update it a little.

For one thing, a modernized story gives you many options on what Pennywise can turn into. While a kid in the 50s may be scared of I Was A Teenage Werewolf, a kid in the 80s is probably terrified of Freddy Krueger. You know who owns the rights to Freddy Krueger now? Warner Bros! If Pennywise was around in the 80s you know he would have used that. I'm not saying this is a mandatory change, but it's a cool one that would surprise fans without changing anything about the story.

Do not use King's ending.

The Ritual of Chud, the Turtle and IT's final form of the giant spider were all fine in the book. Only one of those made it into the miniseries and we saw how bad that was. You have CGI now, so maybe you could go for something more Cthulu-esque. Normally, I'd hate the use of CG but in this case you're going to need it for IT's final form at least, and even then you're going to have to leave out some things about the end.

The Ritual of Chud is one of those things that works in the book because by that point you're into it and believe that it could work. The reason the ritual works in the first place is because the kids believe it will, and their beliefs make IT believe it. It's the same reason silver works, because they think you kill monsters with silver. It's the reason Eddie Kaspbrak says his aspirator is "battery acid". He makes Pennywise believe and that's why it hurts him. But in a movie, the concept of two beings interlocking tongues and telling jokes is just silly. No amount of exposition is going to make that image work for the audience.



Gore, violence and profanity...

Not every horror film needs gore to be good. IT doesn't need gore to be good. But in order to show just how dangerous and sick this monster is, I think gore would be necessary, at least for a few scenes. The monster in the book rips heads off, tears off faces, and pulls limbs out of sockets. You don't have to go that extreme, but showing some blood to establish danger would really work here. Maybe save it for a mean kid and not say, George, but definitely use it.

Mostly this is all about establishing Pennywise not as a joker but as a creature that feeds on innocent children. There's no way to get around it, Pennywise eats kids and you're not going to be able to sugarcoat that because audiences are too sensitive. The brutal tone is a stark contrast to the innocent coming of age that occurs with the kids. Don't sacrifice suspense for blood, but make it violent.

...but no sex.

One thing that feels very awkward in King's novel is the sex. Patrick Hockstetter, a sociopathic child who killed his own little brother, masturbates Henry Bowers and offers oral sex. Yes, it establishes that Patrick is not right in the head but it's really only there for shock value. I'm sure King would agree. Another scene features the Losers club having sex with Beverly in order to regain their bond. It doesn't have to happen that way. and it's once again unnecessary.

For one thing, you're already going to be violent towards kids. Putting them in situations like this is going to make this thing unfilmable. Another, it's going to take away from the story for something that shocks the audience. It's a detriment more than anything. Uncomfortable scenes of children having sex are out of place and would hurt an otherwise scary story. Even fans of the book seem to agree that the scenes in the novel didn't need to be there.



Casting Pennywise

Here's a statement that is going to make some of you mad: Tim Curry is not irreplaceable as Pennywise. He's fun, he's entertaining, at times he can be scary, but someone else could easily take up the role. The problem is finding the right person to fill that role. One thing's for sure, you do not want someone too mainstream. We don't need Tom Cruise or Ben Affleck suddenly deciding they want to be creepy and play a murderous clown.

What I would recommend is a character actor. It doesn't even matter what age because the great thing about Pennywise is that it's not human. It can be a young clown, it can be an old clown. Can you imagine someone like Bill Moseley or Brad Dourif in that role? I'm not even saying it has to be someone in horror. There are plenty of guys who have done TV work or small roles that could take it.

Casting the adults

The last movie filled the adult cast with guys like John Ritter (not a bad choice, really), Tim Reid and Harry Anderson. Basically a bunch of TV actors for a TV movie. With the remake you have a chance to cast movie actors for a theatrical movie. Once again, don't try to go after big names because you're not going to get them. One thing you might try, however, is older actors. The adults in the novel are in their forties.

I would recommend trying to get some of the kid actors to play the adult versions of themselves. I know Jonathan Brandis is unfortunately unavailable, and Seth Green really wouldn't fly...but Emily Perkins could return, Marlon Taylor (young Mike) or Brandon Crane (young Ben) probably would welcome the opportunity for a big film role. They all don't have to be that way, but it'd add some legitimacy to the new version, in my opinion.



What else to cut out

There are some other parts of the book that, while good for exposition and history, aren't necessary for the film. Best case scenario, you can do what the miniseries did and drop hints at it. But the Derry interludes, the deaths of Eddie Cochran and Patrick Hockstetter and the backstory of Henry Bowers are all things that can be cut. You may want to see these things on the big screen, I wouldn't mind it myself, but in terms of how they affect the main story, they're expendable.

Now the history of Derry does need to be discussed at least a little, but we don't need details of each time It awoke and went back to sleep. Tell us about the Bradley Gang, tell us about the Ironworks explosion. But make it brief and make sure it doesn't detract from the story. This film is going to be long enough without adding unnecessary plot details.

Crucial scenes to keep:

Well, basically anything I didn't mention in the section above. But specifically, you should keep a lot. Don't make Pennywise just a clown. Give him multiple forms to scare both the kids and the audience. While his preferred form is Pennywise, It does turn into a variety of monsters in the book.

As far as specific scenes go, keep the first encounters as they are in the book. Ben meets It on the ice, with the balloons that float against the wind. Beverly hears the dead kids in the sink. Bill nearly loses his fingers when a picture book comes to life. With CGi, you could even keep the somewhat ridiculous moments of the giant Paul Bunyan statue and the giant bird that attack Mike and Richie. As long as you make sure to establish that only the kids can see these walking monstrosities. Most importantly, keep the leper under the house on Neibolt street. That was the scariest scene in the book.



That's it for me. How would you remake IT? Let me know here on or my Twitter. As you probably know, a remake of IT has been in the works for some time. Next week I will look at the best horror films to come from novels.


Closing Logo courtesy of Kyle Morton (get your own custom artwork and commissions at his Etsy account)

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