The hit Netflix series Stranger Things has seen numerous comparisons to the work of Stephen King. It's clear that The Duffer Brothers hold the author in high regard. However, it turns out they love one of his books so much they tried to direct the movie version. While there are several Stephen King properties currently being adapted for film, The Duffer Brothers actually tried to get handed the reins of one of them. They asked to direct It.
Stranger Things is a love letter to the 1980s, Stephen King, and John Carpenter. There's really no other way to look at it. It's clear that things like the work of Stephen King are truly loved by Matt and Ross Duffer, the creative minds behind the Netflix series. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the pair were asked if they would have liked to have actually directed one of the upcoming King adaptations, such as It. It turns out, that they really do want to. In fact, they wanted to so much, they already tried.
Ross: Absolutely, because we asked to do it.Matt: We asked, and that's why we ended up doing this, because we'd asked Warner Bros. I was like, "Please," and they were like, "No." This was before Cary Fukunaga. This was a long time ago.
While Matt and Ross Duffer have become overnight sensations thanks to Stranger Things, they were hardly household names a couple of years ago. However, when their horror film Hidden was picked up by Warner Bros. the two apparently used that opportunity to lobby for themselves to take on It. One assumes the fact that they were unknowns were the major thing that was held against them. It was clearly a long time ago, as they say, this was before True Detectives director Cary Fukunaga was attached, and it's been a year since Fukunaga left the project.
Ultimately, the pair seems happy that they decided to go after their own project, rather than directing It. Both brothers say It was the Stephen King novel that had the most impact on them, and that they're not sure they'd really want to take on the responsibility of doing it, as they would hate to screw it up. If they screw up Stranger Things, it's their own work, so they're not disappointing anybody else.
Of course, now we can't help but wonder what might have been. The It movie has had trouble keeping a director. It's never seemed to have been sure whether it was going to be one movie, or two. Maybe people who are a bit more invested in the material is what this project needs.
Would you like to see It directed by the Duffer Brothers? Let us know how you feel in the comments.
