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Stephen King’s ‘It’: Big And Bittersweet News About Parts One And Two

By Dustin Kemp
Published on: 22:20 PST, Mar 12, 2017

The viral buzz over the ongoing two-part movie adaptation of Stephen King’s It died down for a while for a few months after part one wrapped filming, but it is back in full force for two reasons. Firstly, because audiences are actually beginning to get sneak peeks of part one and its trailer. Secondly, because rumors about the beginning of production for part two of the Stephen King adaptation have been flying around. We have some very exciting news on both fronts.

Before we get into it, though, let’s consider the context. Stephen King wrote the well-over-1000 page horror novel It, a tale about a shapeshifting monster who often assumes the form of a clown and murders children, in 1986. Before it was even released, King was quoted in an interview with the Washington Post as calling it his “magnum opus,” and it did not disappoint. It went on to be one of King’s most loved books — not a small feat, considering Stephen King is such a prolific author.

One of the most-cited reasons the book works so well is because of Stephen King’s incredibly intimate character-building. One of the ways in which King accomplished this is by constructing two separate timelines: one following the cast of main characters during childhood, and another that constructs the same cast 28 years later.

In the book, Stephen King masterfully intertwines the two timelines. The two-part movie will keep things chronological. However, the first movie will follow the characters as kids while part two will focus on their adulthood. Both parts are to be full-length movies, but they divide Stephen King’s original source material.

Stephen King has written over 40 books, nearly 20 novellas, and hundreds of short stories. [Image by Francois Mori/AP Images]

Now, on to the news, which as promised, is bittersweet.

First, the “bitter” part: part two is not actually filming this month.

Several days ago, a usually-reliable movie production report site announced that the movie’s second part would be filming in March. Several horror news sources caught on, relays a report by the Inquisitr, and word quickly spread around the internet.

As exciting as that would be, though, Andres Muschietti, who is directing both parts of the Stephen King adaptation, recently confirmed it is not accurate.

“No it’s not that. It’s just a complete misinterpretation of the facts. It’s not happening now,” Muschietti said in an interview with fellow horror director David F. Sandberg.

Those following the movie are not too surprised, as no casting decisions have been announced for part two and part one has not even finished post-production yet. Still, it’s a bit disappointing.

Now for the good news. And brace yourself, because there’s a lot of it, and it concerns the actual filming date for part two, the trailer release timeframe, and the explosive reaction to what has been seen of part one of Stephen King’s It.

So the filming for part two may not be beginning this month, but Stephen King fans and movie buffs can’t be too discouraged, because Bloody Disgusting reports it will be filming this summer. Which means the “adult cast” will be announced between now and then. In fact, Cinema Runner says the casting will be revealed in April. Assuming it’s accurate, that’s pretty great news for King-heads, who worried they would have to wait at least until part one came out on September 8 for any news on part two.

The next bit of news, which bodes very well for the movie’s first part and almost as well for the second part, is that some critics saw part of the movie this weekend and absolutely loved it. The trailer for part one, as well as one scene of the actual movie (the one where Ben Hanscomb, beaten and bloodied at the hands of Henry Bowers, meets some of The Losers Club in The Barrens), was shown to an exclusive audience at this weekend’s SXSW event in Austin, TX. The Stephen King-inspired content, although not yet publicly available, was viewed by sources ranging from horror authority Dread Central to movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, and like King’s book, it was met with rave reviews all around.

The trailer is not available anywhere online yet, but Barbara Muschietti, one of the film’s producers and a huge Stephen King fan herself, confirmed in an Instagram post that it will be soon; note the “#teasercomingsoon” hashtag in the post embedded below. The same Cinema Runner piece mentioned above says the trailer is coming in early April, but we can hope for an earlier reveal date than that.

Even Stephen King himself said via Twitter that the movie was even better than he had anticipated.

Let’s hope these sources are being honest. And keep checking back at the Inquisitr for any news or popular rumors on the adaptation of Stephen King’s It.

[Featured Image by Sdominick/iStock]

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