As production on It: Chapter Two continues, more and more teases about the adventures of the adult Losers Club members are making their way online. Like recent set photos that depicted the evil clown Pennywise’s use of a Paul Bunyan statue which, at least in Stephen King’s original novel, the clown-like creature uses to try to kill Richie (Bill Hader). Yet one of the book’s weirdest and most complex scenes, the famous “Ritual of Chüd,” seems like it just wouldn’t be possible to adapt. After all, how would one film a metaphysical battle of wills, wits and literal tongue-twirling to the big screen?
Honestly, we have no idea, but that doesn’t mean the It: Chapter Two filmmakers aren’t going to give it the ol’ college try. At least that’s according to screenwriter Gary Dauberman, who confirmed to Cinemablend that the ritual will be in the movie, somehow:
“The Ritual of Chüd is challenging, but it’s such an important component to the book that we had to address it. That stuff is difficult to balance, but because [director Andy Muschietti, producer Barbara Muschietti and I] worked with each other before, when I’m writing pages and all that stuff it becomes more of a conversation and less like, ‘Hey, here’s what I did.’ It’s sort of organic; it’s really kind of just chipping away at the stone and trying to find the most focused, accessible way into some of more metaphysical aspects of that book.”
Dauberman, who also wrote The Nun, added that Muschietti “came up with some brilliant, brilliant stuff” for the ritual scene, but didn’t offer any details as to what its big screen adaptation will ultimately entail. But seriously, though, the ritual as King wrote it involves Pennywise and the Losers Club standing in a circle while their tongues interlock as they try to make one another laugh. It’s weirdly literal and metaphorical, and it sounds like the team behind It: Chapter Two wants to do it justice.
(Via Cinemablend)