IT (2017) Pitch Meeting

* Main
* Transcript

**IT (2017) Pitch Meeting** is the eleventh episode of the Pitch Meeting series on Screen Rant.

## Description

How did they plan the 2017 remake of Stephen King's IT? Step inside the pitch meeting that started it all!

## Cast

* Producer Guy - Ryan George
* Screenwriter Guy - Ryan George

**Producer Guy:** So you have a book adaptation for me?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yes sir I do. Are you familiar with *IT*?

**Producer Guy:** With what?

**Screenwriter Guy:** With *IT*.

**Producer Guy:** What's it though?

**Screenwriter Guy:** The name of the book.

**Producer Guy:** What is?

**Screenwriter Guy:** No, *IT* is.

**Producer Guy:** What?

**Screenwriter Guy:** *IT*.

**Producer Guy:** *[visible confusion]*

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[visible confusion]*

**Producer Guy:** What is the name of the book?

**Screenwriter Guy:** *IT* is the name of the book.

**Producer Guy:** What is?

**Screenwriter Guy:** *IT*.

**Producer Guy:** You gotta help me out here, man.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Okay there's a book.

**Producer Guy:** Right.

**Screenwriter Guy:** There's a title written on the front of that book.

**Producer Guy:** Of course.

**Screenwriter Guy::** That title…

**Producer Guy:** Yes.

**Screenwriter Guy:** …is *IT*.

**Producer Guy:** …Right.

**Screenwriter Guy:** You understand?

**Producer Guy:** Yes.

**Screenwriter Guy:** You know what the title is now?

**Producer Guy:** I do.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Tell me the title.

*[long silence]*

**Producer Guy:** I don't know what the title is.

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[fed up]* It's *IT*! The book is called *IT*!

**Producer Guy:** Oh, *IT* is the title!

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yes!

**Producer Guy:** Why didn't you just say that?

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[resigned]* I… I don't know.

**Producer Guy:** This movie's gonna be hard for people to google.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh yeah. Probably.

**Producer Guy:** So what is *IT* about?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well *IT* is a novel by Stephen King about a shapeshifting interdimensional being in the late 1980s that terrorizes Derry, a town where every adult is like really, really creepy.

**Producer Guy:** How does this thing terrorize the town?

**Screenwriter Guy:** He feasts on children and he feeds on their fear.

**Producer Guy:** Ooh, scary.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah so most of the time he takes the form of a horrifying monstrous clown called Pennywise and he lives in the sewers.

**Producer Guy:** Why a clown?

**Screenwriter Guy:** It's just how he lures the children towards him and then he turns into what they're really afraid of.

**Producer Guy:** But you said he's a horrifying monstrous clown.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh yeah, the kids are real scared of him.

**Producer Guy:** So why is that his strategy to lure kids towards him?

**Screenwriter Guy:** What do you mean?

**Producer Guy:** So he wants to lure kids towards him so he can shapeshift into whatever they're afraid of and then feed on their fear.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yes.

**Producer Guy:** So why does he take the form of a terrifying clown to lure them in?

**Screenwriter Guy:** I don't know.

**Producer Guy:** Wouldn't it make a lot more sense to take the form of something they like to lure them in?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Probably, yeah.

**Producer Guy:** Like if he's in the sewers in the late eighties and he's trying to lure kids, why doesn't he take the form of like a Ninja Turtle?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, no, that would be smart of him. Anyway, he goes with scary murder clown.

**Producer Guy:** Okay.

**Screenwriter Guy:** So he's gonna murder a couple of kids right off the bat to get the movie rolling.

**Producer Guy:** Oh, so he's like really doing this.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh yeah. Then he's gonna set his sights on our main characters, a group of kids called the Losers Club.

**Producer Guy:** What's he gonna do to them?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well one by one he's gonna get them alone, and then he's gonna… pop out and scare them.

**Producer Guy:** Oh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, give them a real good spook.

**Producer Guy:** What does he do then?

**Screenwriter Guy:** What do you mean?

**Producer Guy:** After he scares them, what happens?

**Screenwriter Guy:** That's- That's about it.

**Producer Guy:** Is it hard for the kids to get away?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Oh, no no no, super easy, barely an inconvenience.

**Producer Guy:** Oh.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, in pretty much every instance they'll just run away, or even just leave the room.

**Producer Guy:** Wow.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Mm-hmm.

**Producer Guy:** How come it's super easy for them to escape but not the kids at the beginning?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well there is a reason for it in the book, but we're not gonna talk about it in the movie.

**Producer Guy:** I feel like we should talk about it though, wha- w- what is it?

**Screenwriter Guy:** The kids are under the protection of a cosmic turtle god that vomited out the universe.

**Producer Guy:** Yeah, maybe let's not talk about it in the movie.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, probably shouldn't.

**Producer Guy:** Mmm.

**Screenwriter Guy:** The book also explains that Pennywise likes to kind of marinate them in fear before eating them.

**Producer Guy:** But we're not gonna explain that either?

**Screenwriter Guy:** We're not gonna explain that either.

**Producer Guy:** So there's like some really important stuff to understand from the book that we're just not gonna mention.

**Screenwriter Guy:** I don't really think we need to though.

**Producer Guy:** Why is that?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well because it *is* based on a book, anytime someone writes a comment online about something from the movie not making sense-

**Producer Guy:** Ah, somebody who's read the book will jump in like "Well, ya shoulda read the book, idiot!".

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah, exactly, so it's not really our responsibility to explain… anything, really.

**Producer Guy:** Fair enough. So how does the movie end?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well Pennywise is gonna capture Beverly, the girl of group. He's gonna bring her into the sewers, and then he's gonna turn into a big old toothy dolphin with lights in his throat.

**Producer Guy:** Lights? What are the lights about?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well, ya shoulda read the book, idiot!

**Producer Guy:** Ah!

**Screenwriter Guy:** *[chuckles]*

**Producer Guy:** Ya got me.

**Screenwriter Guy:** So anyway then all the kids defeat Pennywise by banding together and hitting him and not being afraid of him. And so he kinda goes away to wait for the sequel.

**Producer Guy:** Well, it sounds like a pretty interesting concept, and we're-

**Screenwriter Guy:** And then the kids have an orgy.

**Producer Guy:** Wait, what?

**Screenwriter Guy:** Well the kids, they get lost on their way out of the sewers, so they, you know, take turns having sex with Beverly.

**Producer Guy:** *[confused and disturbed]* What are you talking about?!

**Screenwriter Guy:** It's in the book.

**Producer Guy:** There's no way that's in the book.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Swear to god. Something about bringing the group together so they can remember how to leave.

**Producer Guy:** *[disgusted]* Jesus!

**Screenwriter Guy:** You think I should leave that out of the movie?

**Producer Guy:** Should you leave the *child gangbang* out of the movie? Yeah, probably.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Alright, I'll cut it out.

**Producer Guy:** Thank you.

**Screenwriter Guy:** But what do you think about the rest of the concept?

**Producer Guy:** Well it sounds like a pretty straightforward horror movie I guess.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Yeah.

**Producer Guy:** I mean we'll put it together, we'll give it a shot, hopefully make a couple of bucks.

**Screenwriter Guy:** Not like an Oscar hopeful for Warner Bros. is what you're saying?

**Producer Guy:** Pff, 2017 will have been a sad year for movies if we submit a murder clown film to the Academy.

*[cut to headline: **Warner Bros. Announces IT Oscar Campaign**]*