Cinema these days seems to be a bit over-saturated with remakes and reboots than it ever has before. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with remaking or rebooting a film as long as it’s done for the right reasons. The ones that fail always seem to be cash-grabs while the successes usually have people behind them that seem to really believe in the source material. We’re still a bit on the fence about how the re-make of Stephen King’s It will turn out, especially since it’s been a bumpy road thus far, but recent news has managed to pique our clown-fearing interest.

Collider’s Steven Weintraub sat down with producer Roy Lee at DICE 2016 and managed to get some new info on the upcoming adaptation of King’s novel. The now-R-rated adaptation is still being envisioned as two separate films, directed by Andrés Muschietti (Mama), that will split the novel’s two connected story lines apart. The first will be told from the children’s perspective while the second will be years later exclusively from their adult points of view. Re-telling a story so deeply ingrained in the horror lexicon would normally have us nervous, but the filmmakers aim for both of have R-ratings has made us a bit preemptively forgiving for remaking such a classic.

“It is very close to the source material in one way but very different if you look at it as a literary piece of work… We’re taking it and making the movie from the point of view of the kids, and then making another movie from the point of view of the adults, that could potentially then be cut together like the novel. But it’s gonna be a really fun way of making this movie.” – Roy Lee

In our minds there is really no way you can replace the abject horror we felt watching the original It and if there were just a straightforward PG-13 remake, we’d likely want no part of it. However, splitting the story lines into two R-rated films is what makes it so interesting. Two separate but altogether connected films with entirely different POVs is something that, to our knowledge, has never been done in such a way. In the novel and original film, the switching between kids and adults gave us a bit of a break in horror in addition to letting us know that the kids managed to get through the initial conflict with Pennywise the clown. Keeping that conflict entirely in first film will surely up its horror levels while keeping the aftermath in the second will no doubt make for a suspenseful and stressful ending to the tale.

Lee’s mention of cutting them together like the novel is also intriguing and could make for interesting directors’ cuts and fan-made interpretations. If the films are made with this in mind, it’ll be interesting to see how each stands on their own and if combining them will feel right in both tone and cinematic style.

Remakes are a divisive topic so let’s discuss so the pros and cons of such a feat in the comments below!

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HT: Collider, BirthMoviesDeath
Image: Warner Bros Televison