Director Cary Fukunaga Exits Stephen Kings It Adaptation

True Detective director Cary Fukunaga has decided to part ways with the planned two-film adaptation of Stephen Kings It. Fukunaga announced at a Tribeca Film Festival panel in April that he would begin shooting the big screen version of It this summer, but the Wrapnow reports that the director abruptly departed the film after clashing with New Line over the films budget and shooting locations.

Following news of Fukunagas exit, Stephen King tweeted, The remake of Itmay be dead or undeadbut well always have Tim Curry. Hes still floating down in the sewers of Derry, referring to the 1990 television miniseries about the novel.

Fukunaga, who penned the It scripts with Chase Palmer, originally planned on shooting two films to tell the story of the shape-shifting, child-killing Pennywise the Clown. Divided up like Kings 1986 horror novel, the first of the two It films would detail the main characters run in with Pennywise as children; the second film would have those same characters returning to Derry, Maine to confront the clown as adults.

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Recently, the production announced that Were the Millers star Will Poulter would portray Pennywise, but that casting decision as well as the future of the whole production is now influx following Fukunagas departure. According to the Wrap, after It shifted from Warner Bros. to New Line, the production company demanded additional budget cuts, including moving the shoot out of New York to somewhere less expensive. The Hollywood Reporterwrites thatthe film was set to begin shooting in three weeks.

New Lines weak opening weekend for their Poltergeist reboot which similarly featured a terrifying clown as well as Poulters relative obscurity in Hollywood also contributed to apprehension over the project. The adaptation is now in indefinite hiatus.

In April, Fukunaga signed up to direct a new dramapenned by the Brokeback Mountain screenwriters. The film tells the true story of Joe Bell and his son Jaden, the latter a 15-year-old openly gay Oregon high school student who committed suicide after being bullied because of his sexuality. A devastated Joe Bell then embarked on a cross-country walking tour to promote awareness about the consequences of prejudice, but that journey too ends tragically.

It becomes the latest King adaptation to stall on its way to the big screen. The authors The Dark Tower series has gestated in Hollywood for years before Sony Pictures and Media Rights Capital revived the projectin April for a planned film and television series.