IT'S time to stop

 https://collider.com/welcome-to-derry-release-window-2024/

I'm not typically a horror fan, but I make an exception for Stephen King. A little over a year ago, I read the entirety of IT all 1,000+ pages. After I read the book I watched the 1990 miniseries, followed by the 2017 and 2019 remakes. 

The 1990 miniseries is as close to the source material out of all three versions, but it has aged poorly. It was made on a small budget for TV. The effects are almost comically bad. Then we have the 2017 and '19 versions, both of which were directed by Andy Muschietti, the 2017 version tells the story of the "Loser's Club" as kids, then the 2019 version picks up and finishes the story through their adult counterparts. Muschietti's versions are visually, much better and there are elements that I like, but the problem with all of these adaptations is that they continually get the actual point of the story wrong. 

Look... IT is a wild ride. And anyone wanting to adapt the book into a movie will be faced with choosing which parts of the 1,000+ pages, to tell and how to make it as scary as possible through more realistic approaches as opposed to the actual book.

In every adaptation of IT, it is directed, edited and promoted as a "terrifying" story about an evil clown. But if you read the book, Pennywise, the clown, is barely there, I don't think it's "terrifying", nor does King want it to be.  I think it's more of a coming of age suspenseful, story about a group of friends joining together to face their fears of growing up. There are creepy and occasionally scary moments, but as a whole, it is certainly not "terrifying" (especially when compared to The Shining). 

Therein lies the problem. Directors keep trying to make it as scary as possible, when they should be focused on the relationships between the characters. 

Screenshot from the promotional trailer of "IT" (2017)

All this to say that Andy Muschietti is set to create his own TV series on HBO which is supposed to be a prequel to the events in the first film called "Welcome to Derry". It's expected to tell the origin of Pennywise. Muschietti versions were good for large audiences but not for fans of the book, and he ignored most of the book when making the films, so we probably won't see any of the actual information about the history of Pennywise. And why would we? It's kinda weird so I'm sure it'll get remade into something "scarier" that makes more sense for large audiences. 

2019's film hinted at Pennywise's origins, something about a carnival worker maybe(?). Which is far off from the intergalactic, pregnant, spider fighting a turtle god that we see in the book. 

I'm not saying the book makes sense or is even good at the end, because it's not. The emphasis of the book is on the relationships and close friendships between the characters. I would rather the films and now the TV adaptation say "inspired by" rather than "based on" if they're only focused on the idea of a killer clown.

Muschietti is alright and his 2017 and 2019 versions suffice but they all tragically lack the heart and soul of the book, so I'm not sure if I'll watch the new show but if other book fans like it, I might. Who knows?