It: Chapter 2 director Andy Muschietti has talked about the possibility of a cut of the story combining both chapters into a single film. The second and final part of the Stephen King adaptation will be released on September 6, picking up 27 years after the events of the original film ended and seeing the now adult Losers Club return to the town of Derry to face off with the malevolent entity Pennywise once and for all.

The narrative of Stephen King’s novel is not written linearly, but rather jumps about in time between the two main plotlines as it progresses, as well as including a number of interludes from various points in the history of Derry that illustrate it as a city with a propensity for violence largely – but not completely – influenced by Pennywise’s continued presence. As well as this new pair of films, there were two previous adaptations of the novel: a three-hour miniseries made by ABC in 1990, and a 52-episode Hindi-language Indian TV series that aired throughout the entirety of 1998. Both of these also told the story in a linear chronology.

The news of Andy Muschietti’s plans came from Games Radar. As part of an interview with SFX, one of the site’s print magazines, he talked about the possibility of editing the two movies together into a single film. Although the story is being told over two distinct parts, one when the Losers were children and then as adults, the whole thing really one big story, hence the follow up being referred to as its second ‘chapter’, so pulling everything together into a single film would be the most accurate way of relating it.

As well as the possibility of a supercut of the two movies, Muschietti also spoke about creating director’s cuts of each part. At 135 minutes long, It is no slouch when it comes to the run time, while Chapter 2 surpasses that and then some, coming in at just under 170 minutes. Since director’s cuts of films are almost always longer than the theatrically released versions, the prospective new cuts would likely lengthen the scares even further, especially since Muschietti revealed that the initial cut of Chapter 2 was about four hours long by itself. Of each of the variant films to potentially be made he stated “I’m happy to basically work on every one of them.”

Although combining the two movies into a single one would be a lengthy and draining viewing experience that would easily run more hours than most audiences would be equipped to handle, it could also end up as the most satisfying possibility. Since a major plot point is that the five Losers who left Derry found their memories of the events surrounding their initial encounter with Pennywise fading, watching the two narratives told concurrently would make for a more naturalistic experience and not have the audience ahead of the characters in their knowledge of events, as well as being about as faithful to the source material as you’re likely to get.

Next: The 5 Best & Worst Stephen King Film Adaptations (According To IMDb)

Source: Games Radar

  • IT Chapter Two Release Date: 2019-09-06