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A prequel series to the critically acclaimed horror movies It and It Chapter Two is in the works with HBO Max.
The popular Stephen King novel was originally adapted into a mini-series in 1990.
Tim Curry’s performance as the killer clown Pennywise cemented the character as one of the scariest villains on screen.
A feature-length film got made in 2017, with a sequel coming out in 2019 that is set 27 years after the events of the first movie.
Collectively, the two most recent It movies grossed over $1.1 billion at the global box office upon their release.
Watch the trailer for It Chapter Two below…
A prequel series has been officially in the works since March, with the current title of Welcome To Derry, the town where the novel and adaptations take place.
Now, according to Variety, Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane have been brought in as co-showrunners as production looks to move ahead.
Fuchs served as a producer and a script revisionist on It Chapter Two, so he is familiar with the franchise.
He was also one of the writers for the first Wonder Woman film, starring Gal Gadot.
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While Kane’s recent writing credits include programmes including Moonhaven and Tokyo Vice.
Director of It and It Chapter Two Andy Muschietti, along with his sister Barbara, will be executive producers on the project.
It had been previously reported that Fuchs wrote the teleplay for the first episode of the series, based on a story he worked on alongside the Muschiettis, who brought Fuchs onto the project.
The director of the film is also being eyed to direct the series premiere.
Not much is known about the series, but there has been speculation that it will explore the origins of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the antagonist of the story.
The character was played by Bill Skarsgård but, as of writing, his involvement in the series has not been confirmed.
King, the original author, recently gave his thoughts about the upcoming show, saying that he is intrigued to see where the show will take Pennywise.
Speaking on The Losers’ Club podcast, the ‘Misery’ author said: “I think that when I die I will kind of disappear from the paperback racks. But that f****ing clown is going to live forever.
“Well, I don’t have a relationship with Pennywise now. Because I have no intention of going back to It.
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“Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] are going to do ‘Welcome to Derry’, they’re talking about it anyway.
“And they’ve got sort of a handshake deal, I think, with HBO Max. It’s an interesting possibility to do that.
“They talked about a prequel. Which struck me as an OK idea.
“I’d love to see what Pennywise was up to 27 years before the ’50s. Or, I guess it would be the ’80s, because they updated the [setting].
“So it would be, you know, before World War II or something. It’ll be interesting to see what will happen with that.”
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