“It”s such an extreme character. Inhumane. It”s beyond even a sociopath, because he”s not even human. He”s not even a clown. I”m playing just one of the beings It creates.”
So says Bill Skarsgard, spawn of Stellan and brother of Alexander, of Pennywise, the murderous clown he plays in Andres Muschietti”s forthcoming two-part adaptation of Stephen King”s It. EW has your first look at the character here:
“Tim Curry”s performance was truly great, but it”s important for me to do something different because of that,” added Skarsgard. “I”ll never be able to make a Tim Curry performance as good as Tim Curry.”
The first image is an appropriately macabre (obviously Photoshopped) look that doesn't deviate too radically from the aesthetic of Curry's Pennywise, with a couple of notable exceptions: a) the blood red stripe running from his lip to his eyebrow and b) the absence of the traditional bulbous clown nose Pennywise sported in the 1990 miniseries. There's also, dare I say, a more creepily seductive look to Skarsgard's version that was absent from Curry's interpretation.
It's hard to tell from these heavily-manipulated “first looks” how the characters in question will look on screen, but it's all we have to go on at the moment, so we'll take it.
It (Part 1) is slated for release on September 18, 2017.