Stephen King's It Adaptation Shifted to Warner Bros.' New Line Imprint

The latest attempt to adapt Stephen King's It as a feature film will reportedly be produced under Warner Bros.' New Line imprint. The production, which will reportedly be shot as two films in order to accommodate the size and scope of the novel, will apparently retain the same production team who was already attached, but Warners is looking to New Line to be the home of their horror offerings (which makes since, given its pedigree as the studio behind the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise). The story centers on seven children in a small Maine town who confront a demonic clown who is the source of a series of murders in 1958, and then again in 1985, when the cycle begins again. Whether they'll update those dates or not isn't yet clear. Dread Central reports that Cary Fukunaga of True Detective fame will write and direct the films, with the first focusing on Pennywise the Clown's terrorizing the protagonists as children and the second focusing on their final showdown with the monster as adults. It was one of a number of Stephen King novels adapted into TV miniseries in the 1990s. The original starred Tim Curry as Pennywise, along with Jonathan Brandis, John Ritter and Annette O'Toole. King's novel The Stand, which was also adapted into a TV miniseries shortly after the release of It, is also in development as a feature film, along with a number of King properties not previously adapted, including The Dark Tower, which Ron Howard hopes to launch as a multimedia franchise on television and film.