While Will Poulter was set to play Pennywise before Stephen King’s ‘It‘ went through development hell causing him to step away, we now know that Bill Skarsgard (‘Hemlock Grove’,’Allegiant’) has landed the role of the deranged clown.
New Line is clearly betting big on the young actor for having to fill the clown shoes that Tim Curry left behind from his iconic role as the scariest clown to walk the cinematic Earth. He is in final negotiations and should soon officially be joining actors Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, and Jeremy Ray Taylor. The film is being split in two and at least the first installment is being directed by Andy Muschietti and we’ll see the two movies following the main characters as both children and adults respectively.
The book has us following the Losers Club which is a group of outcast teens who end up having to defeat the demonic entity It who generally goes by the name Pennywise while in clown form. The ordeal was wiped from most of their minds and when they come together as adults they quickly learn that while they defeated Pennywise, the creature wasn’t killed and is out for revenge.
While I’ve seen a bit of Skarsgard’s work, I can’t say that I’ve seen any instances where he can play off the purely evil or even darkly humorous forms that Pennywise can take. That isn’t to say he doesn’t have the acting chops to pull it off, just that I’m having problems picturing him in the part.
Do you think that Bill Skarsgard is the right person to play Pennywise in ‘It’? Is this a movie that needs a new adaptation? Share your thoughts below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!
