What To Make Of It

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Dread Central got an update from Dave Kajganich, the writer attached to the remake of Stephen King's It, on what his intentions are and where things seem to be headed:

"The remake will be set in the mid-1980s and in the present almost equally -- mirroring the twenty-odd-year gap King uses in the book -- and with a *great* deal of care and attention paid to the backstories of all the characters. I think the real twist here is that my pitch to WB -- which they've assured me they're on board for -- is that this will not be PG-13. This will be R. Which means we can really honor the book and engage with the traumas (both the paranormal ones and those they deal with at home and school) that these character endure.

I plan to be very protective of the book. The reality, though, is that WB wants to do this as a single film, so I will have to kill a few darlings to make that happen. You have my promise, though, that I will do this with the utmost humility and respect for King's work. He's the King, after all, and I intend to continue to pledge to him my allegiance."

He's being kind by saying he'll have to kill "a few darlings" in order to have a single film here. Unless it's a single six-hour film, there's gonna be a darling massacre, darlings scattered along the streets of every town, their darling little darling heads trampled into the darling pavement.

All that said, I think It can be remade and remade well. We'll see. Really the only thing the mini-series had going for it was Tim Curry's iconic performance as Pennywise (which will be as difficult a role to recast as Freddy Krueger, I think) and some great, gross special effects. There's a lot of material to be mined anew.
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