Stephen King’s ‘It’ to Be Adapted by Cary Fukunaga Into Two Films (Exclusive)

Warner Bros.’ adaptation of the classic Stephen King novel It has a director and writer.

Cary Fukunaga, the hotshot filmmaker behind last year’s adaptation of Jane Eyre, is boarding the project as director and will co-write the script with Chase Palmer, who previously adapted Frank Herbert‘s Dune for Paramount.

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Roy Lee and Dan Lin are producing It, as are Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg of KatzSmith Production.

A best-selling book when it was published in 1986, It, like The Stand, is one of King’s biggest and most dense tomes, and the plan is for Fukunaga and Palmer to adapt the work into two films.

The story follows a group of kids called the Losers Club who encounter a creature called It, which preys on children and whose favorite form is that of a sadistic clown named Pennywise. When the creature resurfaces, the group bands together again, this time as adults, even though they have no memory of the first battle.

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The book was previously adapted in 1990 as an ABC miniseries that starred John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Tim Reid, Annette O’Toole, Richard Thomas and Tim Curry asPennywise.

Warners picked up the rights in 2009 and originally intended to adapt it into a single movie.

Jon Silk is co-producing.

Fukunaga won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival for his drama Sin Nombre. He is attached to develop
HBO’s True Detective, which has Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey attached as stars.

Palmer, an award-winning shorts director, first worked with Fukunaga on Focus’ No Blood, No Guts, No Glory.

Fukunaga and Palmer are repped by WME. Fukunaga is additionally repped by Anonymous Content and Lichter Grossman while Palmer is also repped by The Gotham Group and Weissman Wolff.

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