'True Detective' Director Cary Fukanaga Backs out of 'It' Movie

Cary Fukunaga abruptly left the film adaptatino of Stephen King's 'It' due to creative clashes with the studio New Line.

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Complex Original

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According to Variety, the two-part adaptation of Stephen King's novel It has lost its director, Cary Fukunaga of True Detective. Bummer—we were just getting excited about Will Poulter as the evil clown Pennywise. 

Sources that spoke to Variety say that Fukunaga left after New Line, the studio that recently took over the movie from Warner Bros., was planning to consolidate the two-part movie into one, "likely because of budget concerns." But Fukunaga, who co-wrote the screenplay and has been on board since 2012, was insistent on making two movies. It makes sense—have you seen the paperback? That thing is 1104 pages long. 

It looks like New Line and Fukunaga couldn't come to an agreement, because he is out—and it's not immediately clear what New Line's plan is. The movie was scheduled to begin filming this summer, but now it's stalled. 

Stephen King's novel revolves around Pennywise, a shape-shifting evil entity that stalks the citizens of a small Maine town, and a band of kids who come together to take him down. According to the Wrap, who originally broke the news of Fukunaga's abrupt exit, the True Detective director wanted to focus on the protagonists as kids in the first movie, and then as adults in the second. 

[via Variety and the Wrap]

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