Stephen King Had Nothing To Do With The Upcoming ‘It’ Movie

There seems to be a trend among younger horror fans right now: bashing the It mini - series from 1990 and even the original novel by Stephen King. It's almost as if this new version of It can't be good without the mini - series and the novel having to considered beneath it.

This trend may have its origins with Andres Muschietti, director of the feature film version of It, which creeps into theaters on September 8. Muschietti was asked by Collider why Stephen King wasn't consulted in the making of the new movie. Muschietti replied

"I'm very happy making an adaptation, my interpretation of the story, and I would be thrilled to meet Stephen King, but there comes a time in the process where you start feeling good with your interpretation of it, and your contribution to the story, and it doesn't feel like I want to discuss my ideas with him, you know? I don't know. It feels like something that I would be embarrassed to tell him, you know? 'Your words and your moments don't work,' right? [laughs]."

I completely understand a director needing to stick to his own take when doing an adaptation, but those jabs at the end about King's words and moments reek of arrogance. There are words and moments in every book that's ever been adapted to another form that don't translate because they're very different storytelling experiences. It's a compliment to an author that certain aspects of a written work can't be translated to movie or television because that usually means what was written was so beautifully - described that it created an image in the reader's imagination that can't be realized in 'the real world.'

At any rate, King reportedly gave the new movie his stamp of approval. It opens in theaters on September 8.