How The New Movie Adaptation Of Stephen King’s ‘It’ Is Responsible For ‘Stranger Things’
IfStranger Thingsreminds you ofStephen King’sIt, it’s certainly no coincidence. And it’s not just because the Netflix television series is inspired by (and an homage to) It and the author’s other ’70s and ’80s movie adaptations. You might be surprised to learn the show itself is a result of the upcomingItmovie.The Duffer BrotherscreatedStranger Thingsbecause Warner Bros. wouldn’t let them adapt the book themselves.
The Stranger Things It Connection
Stranger Thingsis chock full ofStephen King references, so much so that King himselfeven tweeted about it. From the title opening which featuresa font right out of the cover of a Stephen King novelto overt references toFirestarter,Stand By Me,Carrie,The Body,The Mist,Lisey’s Storyand more.
The series references the Stephen King novel turned miniseriesItin the first episode. Winona Ryder’s character Joyce Byers remembers surprising her son Will withPoltergeisttickets. She tells him that he’s allowed to watch the movie as long as he doesn’t have nightmares for a week, to which Will responds that he doesn’t “get scared like that anymore,” Joyce replies: “Oh yeah? Not even of… clowns?” — an apparent reference toIt’s iconic clown Pennywise.
The Duffer Brothers Tried to Direct the New Big-Screen Adaptation of It
ButStranger Thingsmight never have happened if it wasn’t for thecurrently-in-production new big screen adaptation ofIt. In a recent interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, the brothers were asked if they would have been interested in directing the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’sIt, which is currently filming for a 2017 release. Ross Duffer admitted that he and his brother “did ask to do it” a couple of years back.
For those of you who don’t know,The Duffer Brothers' first screenplay was subject to a bidding war won by Warner Bros (you can read that whole story here). While working on that film, the directing duo attempted to get the job directingIt. But, Matt Duffer said, the studio wasn’t interested in such an unproven quantity.
That’s why we ended up doing this because we’d asked Warner Brothers. I was like, “Please,” and they were like, “No.” This was beforeCary Fukunaga. This was a long time ago.
Ross Duffer says that Cary Fukunaga got the gig “because he’s established.”
So, he got on it, and we were excited just because we’re huge fans of what he does, and one of the few people who hasn’t made a bad movie. So, that was exciting to us, but also, we were seeing trailers forTrue Detective, we’re like, “I kind of want to see. How do you do It in two hours? Even if you’re separating the kids, how do you do that right?” You don’t really fall in love with them the same way you’re going to when I read that book. So, how much more excited would I be if Cary Fukunaga was doing that for HBO or he was doing that for Netflix? There were a lot of different discussions we were having around this time, and a lot of it centered around how exciting TV was becoming and how cinematic it was. Certainly one of those discussions brought us back toItand how we wish it was an eight- or ten-hour miniseries.
Matt Duffer wondered if you could “be truer to the sensibilities ofItif you had eight or ten hours?”
We thought that you probably could more than if you were confined to two hours. At least that’s how we made ourselves feel better about not getting the movie adaptation. We still would have done it, obviously. I’m really excited about that movie. I think it will be cool.
I’m personally glad the Duffer Brothers ended up with this television series over directing the film adaptation.
Sharing a Star
Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike Wheeler inStranger Things, is also playing Richie Tozier in theItmovie adaptation, which is now being directed by Andrés Muschietti. Ross Duffer toldIGNthat they almost didn’t get to use Finn in the show because of theItcasting:
Matt also commented that he believes Finn is “the only kid from Cary’s movie that got recast in this new version ofIt.”
It’s very weird that they bumped it and moved it to the ’80s. That’s why it’s going to seem extra weird.
