2 years ago by Chris Schrader
It turns out tackling two Stephen King adaptations can be as
harrowing an experience as the nightmares faced by the characters in one
of his novels. Screenwriter David Kajganich recently chatted with King
fansite
Lilja’s Library about his work on the
Pet Sematary remake and the upcoming big-screen version of
It.
Kajganich revealed his approach to
Pet Sematary and his enthusiasm for the source material:
“I should say up front that Pet Sematary is my favorite
King novel and adapting it was one of the best screenwriting experiences
I’ve had, creatively speaking. In its modern way, I think it is easily
the equal of anything in the literary canon by Hawthorne or Poe, so I
approached the book as a piece of literature as opposed to a horror
concept to be pillaged. It was a pure pleasure.”
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However, an unfortunate turn of events derailed his plans:
“After I turned in my first draft, Paramount went through
a top-down regime change and I was given a new executive who had
creative ideas I just couldn’t stand behind. They wanted to appeal to
younger audiences, so there was talk of making a teenaged Ellie the main
character, and etc. It was really heartbreaking, but that’s how the
process works sometimes. The studio was gracious enough to let me out of
my contract and the project was dormant at the studio until very
recently.”
Matthew Greenburg was later brought on board to
write a new script after his work on another King adaptation,
1408. While Kajganich confirms that the
Pet Sematary remake is still moving forward, he’s unclear what direction they’ve decided to take with it.
Luckily, he seems to be having a better experience with
It. Apparently
the big screen version of the mammoth-sized novel will bear little resemblance to the early 90s TV miniseries:
“I think the Pennywise in this adaptation is a less
self-conscious of his own irony and surreality than was Tim Curry’s
Pennywise. I think it will be harder to laugh at his antics since, under
the permissiveness of an R rating, I was able to give him back a lot of
his more upsetting moments from the novel, ones that could never be
aired on network television.”
He also reveals the challenges of condensing such an expansive narrative:
“I think the biggest difference is that
we’re working with about two-thirds the onscreen time they had for the
miniseries. That sounds dire, I know, but it doesn’t necessarily mean
two-thirds the amount of story. I’m finding as many ways as I can to
make certain scenes redundant by deepening and doubling others. To me,
this is an interesting process because it has the effect of thematically
intensifying the whole, but it can lead to dramatic surprises. Certain
scenes I thought would be crucial to the coherence of the whole ended up
cut, while other scenes, which were somewhat cursory in the book, ended
up being pivotal in the script.”
While I’m generally opposed to remakes,
Pet Sematary and
It
are two properties I don’t think they necessarily nailed the first time
out. I’m particularly excited about the prospect of an R-rated version
of
It. Even though Tim Curry’s performance inspired many a
nightmare when I was a kid, anyone that’s read the book knows that it’s
infinitely more horrifying and disturbing than what was depicted in the
miniseries. It does seem like an awful lot of ground to cover in just
two hours, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they manage to
deliver a solid adaptation.
How do you feel about the
Pet Sematary remake and the feature film version of
It? Were you satisfied with the previous adaptations or are you excited for a new take on the material?
Source:
Lilja’s Library.
