Fans of Stephen King’s classic horror novel It surely breathed a collective sigh of relief when it was confirmed that director Andy Muschietti (Mama) had been given the go ahead by New Line Cinema to deliver an R-rated adaptation, and speaking to Mad Movies (via Bloody-Disgusting), the filmmaker has discussed how this meant he didn’t have to water down his original vision for the movie.
“This is an R rated movie. I’m very happy about that, because it allows us to go into very adult themes,” said Muschietti. “Each ‘loser’ knows a situation of despair, on top of the terror of It and the fear of heights. Beverly’s case is of course the worst, because it’s about sexual abuse on a minor. But each kid is neglected one way or the other. Bill is like a ghost in his own home: nobody sees him because his parents can’t get over Georgie’s death. Of course, Ben is bullied at school. We don’t know much about Richie’s personality, because he’s the big mouth of the group. But we suppose he’s also neglected at home, and he’s the clown of the band because he needs attention. Long story short, there’s all sorts of difficult situations, and we had the chance to tell them in a movie that faces directly those conflicts. In particular, the families of the young actors were very open-minded, so we could tell the about subjects that are normally very touchy.”
“From our very first discussion with the people from New Line, it was understood that the movie was gonna be rated R,” he continued. “Of course it was already crazy that they started a story revolving around the death of children. But if you aimed for a PG-13 movie, you had nothing at the end. So we were very lucky that the producers didn’t try to stop us. In fact it’s more our own moral compass that sometimes showed us that some things lead us in places where we didn’t want to go.”
SEE ALSO: New images and concept art from Stephen King adaptation It
When children begin to disappear in the town of Derry, Maine, a group of young kids are faced with their biggest fears when they square off against an evil clown named Pennywise, whose history of murder and violence dates back for centuries.
It is set for release on September 8th, 2017, with Andy Muschietti directing Bill Skarsgard (Hemlock Grove) as Pennywise alongside Jaeden Lieberher (St. Vincent), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Jack Dylan Grazer (Tales of Halloween), Wyatt Oleff (Guardians of the Galaxy), Chosen Jacobs (Cops and Robbers), Jeremy Ray Taylor (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip), Owen Teague (Bloodline), Sophia Lillis (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Nicholas Hamilton (Captain Fantastic).
Originally published July 16, 2017. Updated November 30, 2022.
