Movies
‘It’ Director Pulls Out Amidst Studio Clashes
The Wrap is reporting that “True Detective” director Cary Fukunaga is no longer attached to New Line’s film adaptation of the Stephen King’s It. Filming, which was to take place this summer, has been postponed.
The reason for Fukunaga’s departure is that he apparently was clashing with the studio regarding his vision and the budget that they were willing to offer. An example is that he wanted to film in New York, which has higher rates than other locations.
Originally, the project was to be done under Warner Bros. but it moved to New Line in recent weeks. A source told The Wrap that one of the reasons for the budget concerns may have been the lukewarm opening Poltergeist, which also heavily used a clown in their marketing.
Fukunaga’s vision for It was to create two separate films, one which tackled the protagonists as children and the second film to focus on them as adults. Will Poulter (We’re The Millers) was cast to play the villainous clown “Pennywise”.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on things to see what develops. As it stands, this is a sad day as it seemed that everything was in place for a possibly visionary take on King’s terrifying story.
Two things that have proven to be pretty dependable at the box office in recent years are horror movies and Christopher Nolan movies. With Nolan’s The Odyssey absolutely dominating the box office this past weekend, many fans of Nolan’s work have been left hungry for a Nolan-directed horror movie. After all, The Odyssey does whet the appetite for Nolan nightmare fuel.
Christopher Nolan has brushed up against the horror genre in the past with 2002 thriller Insomnia, but does he have any interest in someday making a full-on horror movie?
Nolan tells the Empire Podcast in a new chat, “I’ve always been interested in doing a horror film.”
“But horror is most successful when the conceptual framework of whatever the story is is just so undeniable. I think there are very few really great horror movies,” Nolan continues.
So why hasn’t Christopher Nolan directed a horror movie yet?
He explains to Empire, “I’ve never clicked with a particular idea or concept that worked for me. I love the genre. Of all genres, it’s the most visceral. Where the direct response to the audience is the most important. That is to say, you’re trying to make people literally feel something in their bones about what’s going on on-screen.”
Nolan calls horror “a genre in which experimentation is demanded.” He explains, “I go to see a lot of horror films with my kids these days, and you’ll see things in the first half an hour, 45 minutes of any horror film that you’d never see in another genre. Risks that are taken. Dangerous approaches to things. Admittedly, a lot of movies can’t sustain that to the end. But in the horror genre, that kind of innovation is not just respected – it’s really demanded.”
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is now playing in theaters.
Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008)
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