I know people have asked this a dozen times before but I was wondering if anyone could direct me to or break down the original script in depth. I'm just very curious and excited for this movie and I need something to keep me going during the long wait aha
shareWhich one? Cary's? From what I've heard it's not out there
shareIf you're talking about the pre Cary F script, I'd say save yourself the hassle and don't bother reading it. It is an abomination by all accounts.
~Stop Now Before I Kill You All.A Word To The Wise From Your Friend Pennywise~
Ugh, right? Just trying to imagine the losers club referring to themselves as the "High Five!" makes me cringe. No matter how this film turns out, it at least won't be like that failed attempt.
"Stay Bloody!" - Seth from Blood Puddle Reviews
There's a pre-Cary script? Who wrote it? Is it a legit writer, or does it come off like some ambitious kid who whipped it together during his free time while taking a Creative Writing course?
shareDavid Kajganich penned a draft early on when the project was in development hell, between 2005-2010. It was legit, and it was the most horrible thing ever written. Reading through it once was enough for me. Made the miniseries look like the best adaptation we'd ever get.
The characters of Stan and Mike were completely omitted, though it's more likely that you could say Bill was omitted and just given Mike's character in name. Bill stayed in Derry and took up a job at the library. Audra was just another staff member there.
With the omitting of Stan and Mike, the Losers Club became the "High Five," which just makes me cringe to imagine them saying.
Taking place in the 80's, Silver became a moped, sort of like the customized wheelchair-cycle from Silver Bullet.
Richie and Eddie's characters were switched up as well, having Richie being the cowering mama's boy who encounters the leper and grows up to be a closeted homosexual, and Eddie cussing like a sailor and making wisecracks.
I read it out of morbid curiosity like many others, and I've been so thankful that the script was re-written. I'd rather wait until 2017 to see a hopefully more faithful adaptation, than to have gotten THAT script made into a film. It read sort of like Sk's Langoliers, to me anyway. Utmost tacky and cheap.
"Stay Bloody!" - Seth from Blood Puddle Reviews
Wow. That script sounded totally f#cked up! I can't even think of a worse screenplay for the novel. Thank God it's not being used.
"That's it. It bit into his arm-pit. Like It wanted to eat him, man. Like It wanted to eat his heart." shareIt was pretty bad, all right. I deleted it right after I finished reading it.
"Stay Bloody!" - Seth from Blood Puddle Reviews
Okay, that script sounds like crap, and yet considering it was from within that 2005-2010 period, feels like the kind of bastardization that would've come out during that era.
To me, the majority of the 00s felt like a stain on horror. Sure, there were a handful of REALLY good movies, but there was a crapton of really Producer-driven/"Lets pander" horror. The changes you mention seem to lean that way.
I think post-2010, horror has gotten its footing back and there more more attempts at making effective horror. Don't get me wrong, there is still crap horror(The Gallows) and producers are still driving horror, but it seems like horror producers know more about the genre(and take chances) rather than are like, well, the Weinsteins ("Hey, tap into that MTV gen market! Put a bunch of popular music, Busta Rhymes doing martial arts, reality TV angle, stuff that kid's dig! That's still cool to say, right? 'Dig'?" Only good thing the Weinsteins did, IMO, was The Burning(well, and producing the first Scream, even though I didn't care much for the later ones).
I can guess that with the cast we have now, there is at least an attempt to make a movie with heart, which I doubt that original version even attempted to try.
It IS funny, though. I remember writing a joke concept about how a pandering version of It(aimed at the MTV gen market) would basically merge both eras(kid and adult eras) into one, the Losers would be teens(high school seniors with plans to leave Derry, go to college and have a bright future ahead of them), lots of popular licensed music, sex, drug-use, Pennywise(while still supernatural), is not as imaginative and is just a straight up slasher villain, all the other "Losers" get picked off one by one, Bill dies during the final battle and Beverly is the "final girl". It was a total joke based on how studio suits could ruin King's story by watering it down and pander to the lowest common denominator. I also wrote a joke concept for a Pac-Man movie set in a post-apocalyptic New York City where a group of PACs(Paranormal Armored Commandos), a special marine unit protect the survivors in the labyrinthine ruins of Manhattan from mutated "Gene Ghosts".
I don't really know if anyone has done that with the original script, and the original script will be very different from the finished product. I would re-read the book or a summary of the book, that will also be different from the novel but you can't go wrong.
shareI'm actually currently re-reading the book, I'm at the part where Mike had just joined the losers and Richie's talking about rock and roll
share