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Stephen King’s ‘It’: Port Hope Filming Locations Revealed Along With Possible Plot Points

By Dustin Kemp
Published on: 16:39 PST, May 31, 2016

Northumberland News reported on Tuesday that the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King’s It hopes to film in the Canadian town of Port Hope, and they were even able to get ahold of a list of preliminary filming locations that reveal a bit about the movie’s plot.

The article says that Third Act Productions, the Canadian studio that will be behind the film’s assembly, will have to jump through a lot of hoops to make Port Hope work as a filming location for Stephen King’s brainchild.

For example, the town does not allow any filming in its downtown area between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. That will not work for the crew of Stephen King’s It, who would like to film basically all day, every day — the desired filming hours requested in their application are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Monday through Friday. The producers have made it clear, though, that they love the location, and they hope to persuade the Fort Hope town council to reconsider their municipality’s policies.

Another consideration the studio behind Stephen King’s It must make involves the existing residents and businesses in Port Hope and keeping the disturbance caused by the production to a minimum. To prepare existing Port Hope dwellers, the crew issued a notice to the town.

“We are sensitive to the complexities of filming on location and we are aware that we are guests in your neighbourhood. Because of this, we endeavour to make it as uneventful an experience as possible for the residents and businesses closest to our work area and the neighbourhood in general.”

Third Act Productions will also have to talk to local business owners on a private basis in order to determine the compensation they must offer for obstruction of normal business.

Stephen King's 'It' Filming Location
Port Hope, which is in Ontario, Canada, is not exactly a metropolis, but its 17,000 residents make it a mid-sized town. [Photo by John Moore/Getty Images]
Movie studios, which are generally very well funded, have a tendency to get their way in matters like this, though, and Third Act Productions is confident that, once it gets these small issues out of the way, they will have secured the perfect location to bring Stephen King’s vision, originally penned in 1986, to life.

They are so confident, in fact, that they have already devised a schedule of preliminary filming locations. Most of the locations can be tied to a location from Stephen King’s book. The location list, along with speculation about what spot in Derry (the name of the town from Stephen King’s It) each entry on it represents, can be found below.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Monday, July 11

• Port Hope Town Hall – Represents the Derry Public Library. Yes, it may seem natural to associate the Port Hope Town Hall with Derry’s actual city center, but two of the scenes on the preliminary shooting schedule are filmed in the town hall and the city center plays only a very small role in Stephen King’s It. The Derry Public Library, on the other hand, is in plenty of scenes. It is a favorite hangout of the young Ben Hanscom and is the eventual employer of Mike Hanlon. It is also the setting for one of the Stephen King tale’s more infamous scenes, the one in which the book’s antagonist torments an older Ben Hanscom with blood-filled balloons. Perhaps the last scene is so iconic because it was included in the cult classic 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s It; could it be one of the first scenes filmed for the upcoming edition?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToGGItQjutk

• Memorial Park Cenotaph – A “cenotaph” is a tomb-like memorial, which sounds a lot like the dark and creepy Derry Standpipe, considered in King’s book to be a very dangerous place. It was also where Stan Uris encounters the titular monster in the form of drowned children floating in the water.

• Queen Street Between Walton and Robertson Streets – May represent the area where the monster transforms into the Creature from the Black Lagoon and chases Eddie Corcoran. A map of Port Hope shows that this stretch of street is flanked on one side by a park and on the other side by a lake, which suggests it would be perfect for the scene.

• Capitol Theatre – Represents Aladdin Theater. This is the only theater mentioned in Stephen King’s book and a favorite hangout spot for the “losers club,” the name given to the main characters’ friend clique.

Tuesday, July 12

• Intersection of Mill and Walton Streets – This is one of the biggest intersections in Port Hope, but it lacks any landmarks or features that would enable an educated guess of which location from the book it corresponds to.

• Walton Street Bridge – Likely represents the bridge where a group of homophobic bullies beats up a gay couple and throws them over the edge (an episode Stephen King based on true events in Maine), awakening the monster.

• In Front and Behind 16-22 Walton Street – Walton is Port Hope’s main street and is full of businesses. Unfortunately, 22 Walton is a fairly generic location and, again, it is impossible to make an educated guess.

• Port Hope Town Hall – Again, this is most likely representative of Stephen King’s Derry Public Library.

Wednesday, July 13

• Queen Street Between Walton and Robertson Streets – As stated above, this street is adjacent to both a park and a river, and chances are even Stephen King himself could not guess where in Derry it is supposed to represent.

• Memorial Park – This probably stands in for Bassey Park. The park is where Ben Hanscom encounters the monster for the first time, at which point It takes the form of a mummy.

Thursday, July 14

• The Alley Between Gould’s Shoe’s and Avanti Hair Design – It is difficult to say, but this may represent Palmer Lane, the location of Mike Hanlon’s house where a young Mike helps his father work on a car in the Stephen King novel.

• John and Hayward Streets – These two long stretches of street are fairly nondescript. Could they represent the roads on which the leader of the Losers Club, Bill Denbrough, rides his trusty bike, Silver?

Friday, July 15

• Cavan Street Between Highland Drive and Ravine Drive – Likely represents the road that runs along The Barrens, a favorite hangout of the Losers Club. This stretch of road has a river on one side and a huge, open expanse of nature, including small tributaries, on the other side.

• Victoria Street South between Trafalgar Street and Sullivan Street – This is another long stretch of street with no real defining characteristics that hint at a location in Stephen King’s It.

Monday, July 18

• Watson’s Guardian Drugs – Represents Center Street Drug, workplace of Mr. Keene and location of the terrifying Stephen King scene involving Eddie Kaspbrak’s asthma medication.

The locations suggested by these preliminary filming spots reveal that this iteration of Stephen King’s classic will definitely go into more depth than the 1990 version did, at least as far as fleshing out the town of Derry is concerned.

The final movie, the first part of which is set to be released in September 2017, will actually be split into two feature-length films, allowing the directors and producers even more time to make Stephen King’s fictional town of Derry, Maine, come alive.

Do you have any theories about the preliminary filming locations for Stephen King’s It that were not mentioned here? Make yourself heard in the comments section!

[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images]

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