With It coming to the big screen this September, Stephen King fans are either anticipating or fearing Andres Muschietti's first part of a planned two film adaptation. But it's safe to assume that King himself is perhaps the most frightened, as he's had some legendary rows with folks that have adapted his material in the past. Nowhere is that most notable than with Stanley Kubrick and his vision of what The Shining looked like on film. Thankfully, it looks like King has not only seen It, but he's also offered some encouraging words about the film's quality. Read them for yourself below:
The person writing their own obituary of ultimate pleasure is none other than one of It's producers, Seth Grahame-Smith. With such a close association to the production of the slightly troubled project, to finally have a film in the can and able to please Stephen King's eyes is quite a feat. Of course, there are two ironies in the fact that It has bested The Shining at its adaptation game: Warner Bros, the studio responsible for Kubrick's film, is also partially behind It, thanks to their New Line production shingle. But perhaps the most fitting is the fact that Grahame-Smith's Instagram photo is one of Jack Torrance's manic mug.
Everything from the casting to the interpretation of the novel's story, soup to nuts, irked Stephen King. Most importantly, King felt that Stanley Kubrick's film ignored the more spiritual and supernatural elements that plagued the Torrance family in The Shining. Also, the casting of Jack Nicholson as the central character was something that King felt was too distracting, as he wanted more of an "everyman" for the part. It was a mistake so grave that King himself helped director Mick Garris correct it over the course of a four-hour TV adaptation, which starred Steven Weber as Jack and certainly didn't forget skimp on the ghosts.
But if Stephen King likes Andres Muschietti's initial half of the duology that's going to possibly make up It's sum total, then it's probably a good bet that he'll like the second film in the sequence. At the very least, he's probably pleased that they're not going the route of compressing the entire story of Pennywise's reign of terror into one film. Of course, there's the possibility that King is withholding his true thoughts until the film has run its course, but that's not likely, considering the man has no problem piping up when he wants to be heard.
Fans will get to weigh in on the first part of It when hits theaters on September 8th. There is currently no release date yet specified for the second half.
