Just a few days ago, we posted that “Stranger Things” creators the Duffer Brothers had approached Warner Brothers in the past about doing an adaptation of Stephen King’s It. They themselves admitted that it would be a challenge, stating, “How do you do ‘It’ in two hours? Even if you’re separating the kids, how do you do that right?”

Now, in an interesting turn of events, producer Dan Lin spoke about the remake that’s currently filming under director Andy Muschietti (Mama) and likens what he’s seeing to the Netflix original series. “I think a great analogy is actually Stranger Things, and we’re seeing it on Netflix right now. It’s very much an homage to ’80s movies, whether it’s classic Stephen King or even Spielberg . Think about Stand by Me as far as the bonding amongst the kids. But there is a really scary element in Pennywise,” he tells Collider.

One of the highlights of the Netflix series is the chemistry between the children and their search for their missing friend. While it’s very easy to find movies or shows with poor acting from children, these kids have really shone in their roles, something Lin recognizes needs to happen with It/

[You’re] catching me at a really interesting time because we’ve been shooting mostly the kids’ work and now Pennywise is starting. We clearly had a great dynamic amongst the kids. Really great chemistry is always a challenging thing with a movie like It because you’re casting kids who don’t have a ton of experience, but it ended up being really natural. Each kid, like a Goonies or Stand By Me, has a very specific personality and they’re forming the loser’s club obviously. And now finally the evil force is coming into our movie. We’ve spent a few months getting the kids to bond and now they’re going to fight this evil, scary clown.

About a month ago, we posted the first look of Bill Skarsgard as “Pennywise the Clown”, which was met with a variety of opinions, which I think is a good thing. There’s a lot of hope but also a lot of restraint, which will allow the film to stand on its own merits. But Lin isn’t worried about how viewers will react to Pennywise. In fact, he thinks that this portrayal will be something really special and unique.

His build is really interesting. he’s really tall and lanky, and feels a little clown like in his movement. When he came in — we had a lot of different actors read, and when he came in he had a different spin on the character that got us really excited. You’ve had Heath Ledger doing almost a clown joker, you’ve seen obviously Tim Curry as a clown. We wanted someone who created a Pennywise character that would stand on its own and Bill came in and created this character that frankly freaked us out.

It stars Finn Wolfhard, Owen Teague, Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Jack Grazer and Jackson Robert Scott. The first part of the two-part film will be released on September 8th, 2017.