New adaptation of Stephen King's 'It' to release next year

The New Line and Warner Bros. adaptation of Stephen King's "It", originally to be directed by Cary Fukunaga, will release on September 18, 2017, it has been announced here.

The original King novel followed seven children known as The Losers Club who come face to face with life's problems, bullies and a monster in the shape of a clown called Pennywise.

Sources have also indicated that Will Poulter, who was originally tapped to portray Pennywise in Fukunaga's version, has dropped out of the film due to a scheduling conflict and that executives are currently meeting with actors to portray the classic villain, reports variety.com.

"It" has been on a roller coaster after losing Fukunaga last year over creative differences. The studio quickly replaced him with Andres Muschietti as director and sources have said that production is set to get under way this summer.

The idea is to have two films, one focussed on the children and the other focussing on them as adults when they come back to their hometown to face the monster again.

Roy Lee and Dan Lin are producing along with David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith.

--IANS

ank/nn/vm