It
You'll float too.
It (2017)
Production
Budget
$35 000 000
Revenue
$702 781 748
Director
Scenario
Stephen King
Author
Composer
Producer
Roy Lee
Actors
Jaeden Martell
Bill Denbrough
Jeremy Ray Taylor
Ben Hanscom
Sophia Lillis
Beverly Marsh
Finn Wolfhard
Richie Tozier
Chosen Jacobs
Mike Hanlon
Jack Dylan Grazer
Eddie Kaspbrak
Wyatt Oleff
Stanley Uris
Bill Skarsgård
Pennywise
Short description
In the town of Derry, Maine, children have been disappearing for generations. During one summer, seven young outcasts who call themselves the Losers Club find themselves targeted by local bullies and troubled at home, while each of them encounters a shape-shifting predator that usually appears as a clown named Pennywise. The group bands together to confront the creature and the fear it feeds on.
The film is an adaptation of Stephen King's novel, directed by Andy Muschietti as his second feature after Mama, and written by Cary Joji Fukunaga, Gary Dauberman and Chase Palmer. It stars Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs and Jack Dylan Grazer. A sequel followed two years later, with Muschietti returning to direct.
Made for a budget of 35 million dollars, the film took about 720 million dollars worldwide, a return far beyond its cost. It holds a 7.3 rating on IMDb from roughly 691,000 votes and a 7.2 on TMDB from about 20,688 votes, with a critics' rating of 7.3 from 391 reviews, placing critics and general audiences in close agreement.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of the clown Pennywise was offered to Mark Rylance and Ben Mendelsohn. It was even offered to Tim Curry, who played the clown in the 1990 miniseries. The actor declined, citing health problems.
- Cary Fukunaga was initially slated to direct, but he left the project due to disagreements over budget limitations and creative differences. The plot that Cary Fukunaga was going to work with contained such explicit scenes involving children that the parents of several young actors withdrew their permission for them to film. Studio executives asked the director to rewrite the script, to which he categorically refused. Fukunaga believed that these scenes were too important for the film. Fukunaga demanded to retain the right to decide what rating from the American Film Association to aim for during filming. Fukunaga wanted to make the film with an NC-17 rating (no one 17 or under admitted), while the producers insisted on an R rating (anyone under 17 requires accompanying parent or legal guardian).
- Throughout almost the entire filming period, Bill Skarsgård was present on set, but he didn’t start filming immediately. The actor spent a lot of time with Andrés Muschietti and the producers, working on the image of the clown Pennywise. Skarsgård wanted to play the role perfectly and thereby pay tribute to Tim Curry, whose performance of the role in the 1990 miniseries is considered magnificent.
- Finn Wolfhard is the only actor from the film who remained after Andrés Muschietti replaced Cary Fukunaga as director.
- Chloe Grace Moretz was considered for the role of Beverly during pre-production, but the process dragged on for so long that by the time of casting, she was already 19 years old. It was decided that she was no longer suitable for the role due to her age, and Sophia Lillis played Beverly.
- Bill Skarsgård is significantly younger and taller than Tim Curry was when he played Pennywise in the 1990 miniseries. Skarsgård was 26 years old and 192 cm tall during filming. Curry was 44 years old and 175 cm tall. The role of Pennywise was initially offered to Will Poulter. The actor was 22 years old and 182 cm tall at the time.
- The film's pre-production took 7 years.
- Filming began on June 27 and ended on September 20, 2016, the day before Stephen King's 69th birthday.
- When Cary Fukunaga was initially set to direct the film, Ty Simpkins was cast as Bill Denbrough. When Andrés Muschietti became the director, Simpkins' role was given to Jaeden Martell.
- After Cary Fukunaga left the project, director Andrés Muschietti rewrote the script, adding the most well-known episodes from Stephen King's novel. He handled the script changes himself, but Gary Dauberman also contributed to the work.
- Approximately six months before the film's release, a special screening was arranged for Stephen King.
- In the novel, Pennywise appears in Derry every 27 years. The television series based on the novel was released in 1990. This remake was released 27 years later, in 2017.
- Pennywise's lair was built and filmed in Oshawa, in the Canadian province of Ontario.
- In an interview, Bill Skarsgård revealed that when filming the scene where Pennywise scares a large group of children, he first appeared on set fully made up. Seeing him, some of the young actors were intrigued, some were frightened, and one even began to tremble with fear. After filming the scene, they all burst into tears because of how terrifying Skarsgård's performance was. The actor admitted that he felt guilty about this, and when the camera stopped rolling, he approached and apologized to them all, assuring them that it was all just acting.
- In February 2016, producer Roy Lee stated that the filmmakers had considered splitting the film into two parts.
- Initially, director Andrés Muschietti planned to use computer graphics to add footage to the film where Pennywise's eyes looked in different directions. When he told actor Bill Skarsgård about this, the actor demonstrated to the director that he could do it himself. As a result, all the corresponding footage was shot live.
- Bill Skarsgård admitted that he became so deeply immersed in the role of Pennywise that he was constantly plagued by nightmares during filming.
- While preparing for his role, Bill Skarsgård trained with a professional acrobat.
- Sophia Lillis, who played Beverly, is not afraid of horror films. When she first saw Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, she laughed.
- A popular idea among fans was to bring back the actors who played the children in the original film to reprise their roles as adults. Jonathan Brandis, who played Bill, passed away in 2003, while Marlon Taylor and Jared Blancard, who played Mike and Henry respectively, said they would have accepted such an offer if it had been made.
- One of It's manifestations – a woman from a painting named Judith in the credits – is not present in the book. This image was inspired by the work of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920). A reproduction of one of his paintings hung in the home of Andrés and Barbara Muschietti and frightened the future director. The influence of Modigliani's work is also evident in the image of the main creature from Muschietti's previous film – "Mama" (2013).
- On September 22, 2017, the Russian fast-food chain Burger King filed a complaint about the film "It." The reason was that Pennywise, the main villain, strongly resembles Ronald McDonald, the symbol of McDonald’s. They believed this constituted advertising for a competitor. The Federal Antimonopoly Service and Burger King employees confirmed the company's claim. Despite this, no detailed comments were given.
- At the request of the director, Bill Skarsgård never met with the young actors before filming the episode of Pennywise's confrontation with the members of the so-called "Losers' Club." Andrés Muschietti wanted the young actors to genuinely be frightened by the clown, and, as he later said, that is exactly what happened.
- When Richie (Finn Wolfhard) is in a room filled with clowns, a doll sitting on the floor can be noticed, which looks like Tim Curry's Pennywise from the original film "It" (1990).
- Director Andrés Muschietti revealed that many of the forms that It takes in the novel were replaced with others in the film to make it less predictable for those who had read the book.
- Although the ending of the novel "It" is ambiguous, and it remains unclear whether It survived, Stephen King swore he would never write about Pennywise again, as this character is too frightening even for him.
- On September 17, 2017, actor Bill Skarsgård, who played the role of the dancing clown Pennywise, revealed that the studio had filmed a scene with him set in the past. According to Skarsgård, an early version of the film included a flashback to the 1600s. At that time, Pennywise did not yet exist in the town of Derry. The actor played the character without clown makeup. The scene showed the origin of Pennywise. The scene, the actor added, was intended to show the monster's existence deep within the Earth for many years. Variety noted that an early script for 'It,' which Cary Fukunaga was working on, also featured a similar scene. There, Pennywise played the piano and devoured children in the 1800s.
- In the novel, Pennywise tears off Georgie's left arm, not his right, as in the film. In addition, the screenwriters also changed the fact of Georgie's disappearance – in the book, he remained on the bridge and was found by a neighbor immediately after the attack.
- In Stephen King’s novel “It,” the storyline with the main characters in childhood unfolds in 1958. In the film, all events take place in 1989.
- The creators of the series “Stranger Things” (2016), brothers Matt and Ross Duffer, offered their services to work on the film, but the offer was rejected because they were considered not well-known enough.
- Chosen Jacobs, who played Mike Hanlon, celebrated his 15th birthday on the film set. Jeremy Ray Taylor, who played Ben Hanscom, took the birthday boy to see the adventure film “The Legend of Tarzan” (David Yates, 2016), starring Alexander Skarsgård, brother of Bill Skarsgård, who was cast as Pennywise.
- Bill Skarsgård celebrated his 26th birthday shortly before filming began. As a playful jab, director Andrés Muschietti posted a photo on Instagram of himself wearing Pennywise’s mask and raising his middle finger. Skarsgård himself is standing in front of Muschietti in the picture.
- During the first weeks of filming, Wyatt Oleff finally bought Stephen King’s novel “It” to better understand and get to know his character. He played Stanley Uris in the film.
- This was Jackson Robert Scott’s debut in cinema. He played Bill’s younger brother, Georgie. Before filming “It,” Scott had only appeared in one episode of the television series “Criminal Minds” (2005).
- Some episodes were filmed in Port Hope, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Craig R. Baxley also filmed the miniseries “Storm of the Century” (1999), based on a screenplay by Stephen King, in the same location.
- Andrés and Barbara Muschietti did everything possible to include as many episodes and scenes from the novel in the film as possible. They largely succeeded, but some episodes (such as the one in which the so-called “Losers’ Club” performs an ancient Native American ritual) were rejected by the producers, who considered their filming to be too expensive.
- British comedian, satirist, and actor John Oliver, a big fan of the novel 'It' (1986), appeared in a cameo role in the film.
- In an interview, the child actors were asked who they would cast in their roles for a second film. The following cast was suggested: Richie – Bill Hader, Beverly – Jessica Chastain, Mike – Chadwick Boseman, Eddie – Jake Gyllenhaal, Stan – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben – Chris Pratt.
- The film's first teaser trailer was viewed 197 million times within the first 24 hours of its release, breaking the record previously held by the trailer for 'The Fate of the Furious' (2017) – 139 million views in the first 24 hours.
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