Steer clear of storm drains and get your first look at Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise in the new IT movie.
Unveiled by EW, the new image shows Skarsgård as the ancient, evil entity that first terrorized residents of Derry on the printed page in Stephen King's seminal 1986 novel, IT, before Tim Curry brought the character to life in frightening fashion in the 1990 two-part miniseries adaptation.
Now it's Skarsgård's turn to don the white makeup, bright red nose, and sinister smile. The former Hemlock Grove actor spoke with EW about his incarnation of the evil force known as IT:
“It’s such an extreme character. Inhumane. It’s beyond even a sociopath, because he’s not even human. He’s not even a clown. I’m playing just one of the beings It creates."
Skarsgård also expressed to EW how it is vital to do something different with the role this time around, instead of trying to replicate Curry's iconic take on the character:
“Tim Curry’s performance was truly great, but it’s important for me to do something different because of that. I’ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.”
Planned as a two-movie adaptation, principal photography on IT is now underway. The first film is expected to follow the Losers’ Club as kids facing evil incarnate in the small town of Derry in the 1980s, with the second movie focusing on the Losers’ Club as adults once again tasked with defeating the malevolent entity that haunts their hometown… and their souls.
Andy Muschietti (Mama) is directing IT from a screenplay he wrote with Gary Doberman. Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Seth Grahame-Smith, and David Katzenberg are on board as producers, with Jon Silk executive producing the project.
In addition to Skarsgård, the cast for the new IT movie includes Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Owen Teague, Sophia Lillis, and Nicholas Hamilton.
The new IT film is scheduled for a September 8th, 2017 release from Warner Bros. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more details.
Image from New Line Cinema / Marco Grob via EW:
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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