Cary Fukunaga has a very crowded slate of upcoming projects (which we’ll get to in a second), but the one that was perhaps generating the most anticipation was his adaptation of Stephen King‘s “It.” Slated to film this summer, casting had even started earlier this month, with Will Poulter chosen to play Pennywise in the project that would’ve seen the epic horror novel split into two films. But now things have taken a disappointing turn.
The Wrap reports that Fukunaga has exited the movie over budget cuts to the film. The project was initially set at Warner Bros. but was moved to their New Line branch, where the studio started trimming the budget. Unwilling to adjust his vision for the movie because of those cuts, Fukunaga decided to leave “It” this weekend. And it remains to be seen if the movie will be revived. The studio was reportedly not encouraged by the weak reception to “Poltergeist,” and there is chatter the project might be refashioned into one long movie instead.
But while this may be a bummer, Fukunaga has got no shortage of projects to work on: an untitled father/son drama set up at A24; the Alexandre Dumas tale “The Black Count“; a war movie at Fox; “Noble Assassin” at DreamWorks; and TNT recently paid a staggering $5 million per episode for his limited series adaptation of Caleb Carr‘s “The Alienist.” Damn. And let’s not forget his next feature, “Beasts Of No Nation,” is already in the can and slated to arrive this year.
READ MORE: Cary Fukunaga Returns To TV
So, while Fukunaga has left “It” behind, it probably won’t be too long until he’s moved to his next exciting gig and we can’t wait to find out what it is.
Horrible, but better he makes he own movies.
DG\’s right. i would rather see Fukunaga do original material than just another Stephen King adaptation tripe. when people figure out Stephen King is not only not a good writer, he\’s not even a good horror writer, i think the world will be better off. Daniel, the film industry runs on trends, sorta the same way campaign politics does, and both often misinterpret signs to usher quality product/candidates as a demand for the opposite.
First Daniel nailed it. ANy studio that would equate Fukunaga to Keenan has its head up its ass.
I saw this coming but held out so much hope. Still I\’m interested in what he does next. Any idea what happened to the Gore Vervinski sci-fi movie?
God bless you, studios, you are always in character. "Damn, Poltergeist underperformed. Instead of seeing this as evidence that making lousy, cheap looking cash-ins don\’t really pay off the way I want, I\’m instead going to interpret it as people not wanting to see horror movies any more. We should cut the budget on Fukanaga\’s \’It\’ and have that talented director quit, and give it to a hack like we did with Poltergeist. Whew that\’s enough work for today. Hold my calls."
This is good news I think. Would much rather see him do something original and not another horror remake.