Thanks to last year’s massively successful adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, the story has crept back into the public’s eye, resurrecting the fear many have of clowns. The 1990 miniseries adaptation of the story was some audiences’ first introduction to the tale of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with some King fans finding the adaptation just as effective today. A new documentary delves into the miniseries’ production, Pennywise: The Story of IT, which you can see a teaser for above.
More than just chronicling the making of the film with behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the original cast and crew, the documentary aims to explore the cultural fear of clowns and the role IT played in the public’s perception of the character designed to bring joy to others.
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With this original miniseries being so beloved, many had doubts that last year’s adaptation could be successful, yet its over $700 million worldwide gross proved that the story would be horrifying no matter what decade brings Pennywise to the big screen. Even one of the original makeup designers couldn’t resist praising the production.
“It was cool. I’m certainly fond of mine, but I thought they did a nice job,” Bart Mixon shared with House of Tortured Souls. “I did get to apply that one day for the promotional thing, and there were certainly some similarities to my makeup which probably couldn’t be avoided [with] it being a clown, but I thought it was different enough. I don’t envy [Bill] Skarsgård just having to follow Tim Curry. That must be a pretty daunting task for him, but yeah, I thought it was interesting as a makeup.”
Arguments continue to rage about which adaptation of King’s novel is better, with last year’s version earning the edge due to its larger production budget, which Mixon envied. He’s also just as excited as anyone to see how IT: Chapter 2 plays out.
“For what I did, I think it was about three hours and five minutes long,” Mixon pointed out. “By the time they do part two, it will probably come into about four and a half hours to cover the same territory, so I am kind of envious that they got another hour and a half to tell the same story and they are not restricted by the 1990 TV censorship as I was. But I’m really looking forward to part two. I got a lot of crap on mine for the spider at the end of ours, so I’m kind of curious to see what they do or if they are even going to do a spider, or if they are gonna chicken out and not do it at all.”
You can head to the film’s Facebook page to learn more about its release.
Which Pennywise do you prefer, 1990 or 2017? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
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