9 Coolest Facts About Cary Fukunaga’s Unmade It Film

9 Coolest Facts About Cary Fukunaga’s Unmade It Film

In an alternate universe, there exists a version of Stephen King’s It that came not from Andy Muschietti, but from True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga.

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Content Warning: This article contains reference to sexual assault.

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The works of Stephen King can be very difficult to translate properly to the big screen. Titles like The Tommyknockers, Cell, and IT lack the adaptability of something like Cujo or Christine.

In the case of It, there have been a couple of attempts to bring it to the big or small screen in a satisfying manner. Andy Muschietti’s IT (2017) did a great job of introducing Pennywise and Derry, Maine to audiences, but IT Chapter Two (2019) was seen by fans as a step-down. It’s interesting to imagine if the vision of original director Cary Joji Fukunaga (No Time to Die) would’ve been received the same way.

9 More Time With Mike Hanlon

According to Complex, IT was initially supposed to feature two more Pennywise scenes with Losers Club member Mike Hanlon. First would have been in the Kitchener Ironworks, which is important in Muschietti’s film but not nearly to the extent of the novel.

Fukunaga’s Ironworks scene would have included the death of Patrick Hockstetter (Henry Bowers’ lackey who dies in the sewers) and would have received a callback later on. The second of Hanlon’s excised Pennywise scenes was to take place in the Derry Home Hospital. Hanlon would have first followed a lone sheep into a morgue. Then, he’d have encountered the shape-shifting and monstrous Pennywise. Lastly, he would have seen Patrick’s decomposing body rise up from the operation table. It sounds like an old-school scare and would have fit in well with the film.

8 An Appearance By Dick Hallorann

Like other re-watchable Stephen King movies, there would have been references to the author’s universe in Fukunaga’s IT. Namely, there’s a character from The Shining who would have been addressed by name. Dick Halloran is technically in Muschietti’s version of IT, but the reference is excised. His appearance takes place while Mike Hanlon is talking to his father at the slaughterhouse.

Fukunaga would have even included another reference to The Shining. The first time Stan Uris would have been scared by Pennywise, the evil alien would be a nude woman rising from a bathtub. It would be a startling direction for the film to take, but perhaps a bit too on the nose.

7 Fewer Jump Scares

Muschietti’s version of IT typically has a member of the loser’s club slowly walking before being startled by their own personal fear. In the first film, it works several times, though there are only so many times a CGI clown can run towards the screen and be scary.

Fukunaga wasn’t going to have much to do with the jump-scare approach that Muschietti’s films reveled in. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Fukunaga said in regards to why he left the film, “I think New Line’s view of what they wanted and my view of what I wanted were very different. I wanted to do a drama with horror elements, more like The Shining. I think they wanted to do something more like Annabelle.” While Muschietti did shine a light on the book’s domestic drama (particularly in regards to Beverly), but it’s not a huge focus. It sounds like Fukunaga was going to give viewers a more fleshed-out Losers’ Club.

6 It Still Would Have Been Two Parts

Horrifying ’80s movies similar to IT tend to be relatively restrained tales that get a line of sequels. King’s killer clown story, however, is an epic that requires a multi-part telling.

This was always the plan for IT, as it was simply too much plot for one movie to depict effectively. Just like in Muschietti’s version, the first part would take place in the ’80s while the second film would be set in the present day. This makes sense, and it’s reasonable to know that no matter who was behind the camera, this would be a two-part horror epic, and not crammed into a single film.

5 Some Versions Stayed Truer To The Book’s Depiction Of Abuse

The abuse suffered by Beverly Marsh at the hands of her father is easily one of the book’s tougher sections to read. It’s also incredibly difficult to adapt for a mainstream movie.

Fukunaga’s original script had more severe, even outright sexual, abuse than what ended up being in Muschietti’s movie. It’s difficult to say what would have ended up in Fukunaga’s final cut, but logic points more towards him taking Muschietti’s approach. Many sexual sections from the book, like the children’s group sex scene, were not even in the first of Fukunaga’s drafts. It seems safe to say that’s a topic he would have avoided when possible.

4 The Fate Of Victor Criss

Victor Criss is more or less a tertiary antagonist in Stephen King’s IT. A lackey to Henry Bowers, Criss is written as the most empathic of his group. In the book, he even nearly joins the Losers Club.

One thing that’s common between all variations of Criss is that they’re killed by It in the sewers. However, the way it’s done varies wildly. In the 2017 movie, it’s an off-screen death at the hands of Bowers (along with Reginald “Belch” Huggins). In the book, Criss is decapitated by It, which has morphed into Frankenstein’s monster. Lastly, in Fukunaga’s version, Victor would have been gruesomely eaten by spiders.

3 Retaining The Importance Of Henry Bowers

Considering the massive scope of Stephen King’s novel, it would be somewhat understandable for Henry Bowers to get pushed to the sidelines. However, like in the Muschietti films, Bowers would have played a prominent antagonistic role in the lives of the Losers.

Fukunaga named the character Travis in his script, but the character was still a cruel pest with homicidal tendencies. Furthermore, the character’s most pivotal moment would have still been included. Bowers killing his father is a major turning point and elevates him to a severe threat, if he’s included at all so should this scene.

2 The Third Act Would Have Been Different From The Book

The primary difficulty of adapting Stephen King’s IT is the third act. With everything from a turtle god to a massive, alien spider, the novel goes in some bizarre directions.

While Muschietti’s IT Chapter 2 changed up the film’s ending a bit, it stayed true to the book’s spirit more often than not (e.g. by having Pennywise take the form of an arachnid). Fukunaga was going to avoid this problem altogether by shooting a completely new ending. Considering how Stephen King doesn’t like The Shining, which also strayed from the source material, it’d be interesting to see how he’d have felt about Fukunaga’s IT.

1 The Losers Club Still Wouldn’t Have Been Fully Formed

In Muschietti’s IT, Bill Denbrough, Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier, and Stan Uris all know one another prior to the events of the film. This was a change Fukunaga made from the novel, where only Denbrough and Kaspbrak are close at the beginning.

There’s a gradual forming of the Losers Club in every version of IT because it’s the fear that brings them together to make them strong. However, Denbrough, Kaspbrak, Tozier, and Uris having a pre-established dynamic makes the outcome for two of the four all the more devastating.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/coolest-facts-about-cary-fukunaga-unmade-it-film/

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