It Chapter Two is the second part of the 2017 It movie that was a critical success and a commercial juggernaut!
The second chapter of the story will premiere this Friday and anticipation is high. So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this new film!
- It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film
- And the sequel to the 2017 film It
- Both based on the 1986 novel It by Stephen King
- The film is directed by Andy Muschietti
- It is written by Gary Dauberman
- Set in 2016, 27 years after the events depicted in the first film
- It stars Bill Skarsgård, returning as Pennywise the Dancing Clown
- James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, and Andy Bean portray the adult versions of the Losers Club
- While Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Wyatt Oleff reprise their roles as the younger Losers
- Talks for an It sequel began in February 2016
- By September 2017, New Line Cinema announced the sequel would be released in September 2019
- With Dauberman writing the script and Muschietti expected to direct
- Principal photography began in June 2018
- It was held at Pinewood Toronto Studios and on locations in and around Port Hope, Oshawa, and Toronto, Ontario
- It wrapped on October 31, 2018
- The film was produced by New Line Cinema and Vertigo Entertainment
- It Chapter Two premiered at the Regency Village Theater in Los Angeles on August 26, 2019
- It is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 6, 2019
- Much like its predecessor, It Chapter Two received generally positive reviews from critics
- With praise for its acting and themes
- Form the cast praise is being given to Hader and Skarsgård
- There was criticism aimed at its runtime and lack of scares compared to its predecessor
- On February 16, 2016, producer Roy Lee, in an interview with Collider, mentioned a second film
- Remarking, “[Dauberman] wrote the most recent draft working with [Muschietti], so it’s being envisioned as two movies”
- On July 19, 2017, Muschietti revealed that the plan is to get production underway for the sequel to It next spring
- On July 21, 2017, Muschietti spoke of looking forward to having a dialogue in the second film that does not exist within the first
- Muschietti confirmed that two cut scenes from the first film will hopefully be included in the second
- One of which being the fire at the Black Spot from the book
- In September 2017, Muschietti and his sister mentioned that Jessica Chastain would be their top choice to play the adult version of Beverly Marsh
- In November 2017, Chastain herself expressed interest in the project
- Finally, in February 2018, Chastain officially joined the cast to portray the character
- Making the film her second collaboration with Muschietti after Mama
- By April 2018, Bill Hader and James McAvoy were in talks to join the cast to play adult versions of Richie Tozier and Bill Denbrough respectively
- In May 2018, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Jay Ryan joined the cast to portray adult versions of Eddie Kaspbrak, Stanley Uris, and Ben Hanscom respectively
- In June 2018, Isaiah Mustafa joined the cast to portray the adult version of Mike Hanlon
- While Xavier Dolan and Will Beinbrink were also cast as Adrian Mellon and Tom Rogan respectively
- Later, Teach Grant was cast to play the adult version of Henry Bowers
- Previously played by Nicholas Hamilton in the first film
- And Jess Weixler also joined the film to play Bill’s wife
- This also marks the second collaboration between McAvoy, Chastain, Hader, Weixler and Beinbrink after The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
- In September 2018, it was revealed that Javier Botet would appear in the film in an undisclosed role
- The visual effects were provided by Atomic Arts and Method Studios
- Supervised by Brooke Lyndon-Stanford, Justin Cornish, Josh Simmonds
- And Nicholas Brooks as the Production Supervisor with help from Cubica, Lola VFX, Make VFX, Rodeo FX and Soho VFX
- The young actors will be digitally de-aged to match their respective ages during filming of the first film
- The first image of the adult versions of the Losers Club was released on July 2, 2018 while principal photography began
- The first teaser poster of the film was released on October 31, 2018
- Footage from the film was shown at the CinemaCon on April 2, 2019
- A second teaser poster was released on May 9, 2019
- Along with a teaser trailer
- On July 17, 2019, the second poster and the final trailer were released at San Diego Comic-Con
- In the United States and Canada, the film is projected to gross $90- 100 million in its opening weekend
- At the week of its release broke Fandango’s record for most advance tickets sold by a horror film
- On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79%
- Based on 78 reviews
- With an average rating of 6.85/10
- The website’s critical consensus reads: “It: Chapter Two proves bigger doesn’t always mean scarier for horror sequels, but a fine cast and faithful approach to the source material keep this follow-up afloat”
- On Metacritic, the film has a which uses a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 27 critics
- Indicating “mixed or average reviews”
- Regarding a potential prequel film, director Andy Muschietti said: “This is the conclusion of the book, so there is no part three. This is the end of the journey of the Losers against Pennywise. But, as we all know the mythology is very rich, and in Stephen King’s book Pennywise has been around for a million years, he’s been in contact with humans for at least five hundred years, and he comes back every twenty-seven years. So, if you go back and back and back and back, you’ll see a lot of drama”
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