Stephen Kings IT, your thoughts....

[ER]

Good movie, better book, except for the part at the end where in order to secure their pact they almost all had sex with Bev, which was just plain pervy of King.

[Dennis]

I liked the mini series enough that I bought the DVD. I enjoyed the novel more, I must agree that Mr. King's novels can be long and contain a lot of backround information about the characters, I generally enjoy this sort of thing but it can get annoying at times. This is something that can't really be put in a movie. In the scene where young Ben Hanscomb is confronted by Henry Bowers and company he knocks Henry down then jumps down to the creek bed and hides till they leave, in the novel, in the seconds before this happens you get into his mind, he thinks about his favorite TV hero, Lt. Dan Matthews of "Highway Patrol".  Matthews is a chubby man, must have been a fat kid, Matthews is also a very tough guy who takes no #$#@ from anyone, he wouldn't just let himself get beat up, he'd do something. This is what gives him the courage and ability to take action. There's a lot of this sort of thing in a King novel and while it can sometimes be boring it usually adds to my enjoyment of his writing.

[Wag]

I remember liking the film version; I watched it a few times when I was younger although I have not seen it recently. That is something I might have to remedy. I haven't read the book yet though (I thought I had in my youth, until I saw how thick it was and realised I had not read anything that thick at that time of my life), but I intend to as I have recently finished my first Stephen King book and was very impressed.

Also (and I am hesitent to put this) I never realised Tim Curry played Pennywise until I read this topic.

Ha ha - this post makes me seem so dumb!

[AndyC]

I really enjoyed this when it aired, and I can recall watching it a couple of times since. As nearly everyone has said, Tim Curry is amazing in this, and the ending left me scratching my head and wondering what the hell just happened.

I've been tempted to get the book from the library and give it a try, although I have half of From a Buick 8 and a Michael Slade thriller to read first.

[peter johnson]

Re:  Sex with Bev --

As I said in another thread, King was trying to establish IT as a most ancient of Evils that had been around forever.  The oldest known continuing religious tradition that has a mythos of fighting Evil is Tantrism.  What was happening in the sex scene was that Bev was offering herself as a Dakini to empower the boys by focusing and magnifying their kundalini energies.  See the Wikipedia entry on Tantra, which isn't half bad.

It was via this ritual that such "miracles" as the harmless inhaler being perceived as a powerful weapon by the Ancient of Evils (IT) were achieved.  In the TV adaptation, yes, IT seems little more than a giant spider, sort of a companion to Shelob in The Lord of The Rings.  In the book, IT is something much much worse . . . we float down here . . .

peter johnson/denny crane

[CaptnTripps]

do you think Pennywise could be some kind of decendent to the Crimson King?

[Doggett]

do you think Pennywise could be some kind of decendent to the Crimson King?

I think Pennywise is a descendant of Ronald McDonald. 

[WyreWizard]

I've seen many TV makes of Stephen King novels.  I've seen It, the Stand and the Tommyknockers.  All of them were good.  But I would love to see someone make a film of one of King's newest books, Cell.

I would really love it if they did films of his Dark Tower Series.  Roland the Gunslinger deserves some screen time.

[BTM]

I would really love it if they did films of his Dark Tower Series.  Roland the Gunslinger deserves some screen time.

I've been told the guys from Lost have bought the rights to do film adaptations of the the books.  King is a big fan of Lost and says he trusts the guys to do a good job on it, whatever they come up with. 

One problem many have mentioned though is how to handle the character of Jake, who's eleven in the first book (and reappears in the third book to stay throughout most of the series)  Obviously, casting a young boy would cause problems as he'd grow while filming, and if the story would span multiple films, well, you can see how that would mess things up.  Course, I say given the nature of Midworld, they could just say that the place is aging Jake faster than normal, forcing him to grow up (physically and emotionally) faster than he normally would have.

[CaptnTripps]

If they do, and do a good job, I can die a happy man.

[CaptnTripps]

do you think Pennywise could be some kind of decendent to the Crimson King?

I think Pennywise is a descendant of Ronald McDonald.