For quite a while, it seemed like the big-screen version of Stephen King’s It was destined for development limbo, but production is now officially underway on the two-part feature from Mama director Andy Muschietti — a fact that the filmmaker confirmed with a photo from the set on the first day of filming.
Simply captioned “Day one,” Muschietti’s photo shows the back of the director’s chair with the logo for the film: creepy red letters spelling the film’s title, It.
The photo was posted on Instagram:
Set to star Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard of Hemlock Grove and The Divergent Series: Allegiant as the nightmare-inducing villain Pennywise the clown, the film’s core cast also includes younger and older versions of the same group of seven characters. The first film follows a group of childhood friends who must overcome their fear to battle an evil, supernatural entity responsible for the deaths of children in their Maine hometown. The second film brings the friends back as adults as they face the possibility that they must risk their lives and return home once again to fight the creature they defeated decades ago.
Along with Skarsgard as Pennywise, the film’s cast includes Jaeden Lieberher (Midnight Special), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer (Tales of Halloween), Wyatt Oleff (Guardians of the Galaxy), Chosen Jacobs (Hawaii Five-0), and Jeremy Ray Taylor (42) as the younger versions of the friends.
The first film in the two-part saga will arrive in theaters September 8, 2017.
