Will Poulter is in talks to play the evil clown Pennywise in a remake of Stephen King’s ‘It’, for director Cary Fukunaga.

Watch out Tim Curry. Over at Variety they’re reporting that Cary Fukunaga (of Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre, Beasts of No Nation, “True Detective”) has cast the lead in his new It feature, which will be split into two movies. Sources have told them that young actor Will Poulter, currently 22 years old, is “in negotiations” to play Pennywise the evil clown. Poulter last appeared in The Maze Runner as Gally, along with A Plea for Grimsby, Glassland, We’re the Millers and Son of Rambow. He’s also in the upcoming The Revenant, which we’ll all be watching this December. Apparently the audition won over Fukunaga and they couldn’t say no.

We’ve been following development on this It project for years, but with Cary Fukunaga bouncing all over between major projects after winning the Emmy for directing “True Detective”, it’s hard to tell if this was happening sooner or later. It now appears sooner might be the case. As for Poulter, supposedly “Fukunaga could not say no after being blown away by Poulter’s audition for the part and felt he was the right choice for the role.” The movie is being split between young and old, adapted once again from Stephen King’s book, the same the gave us the original “It” series starring Tim Curry as Pennywise. “The plan is for New Line to shoot one movie focusing on the protagonists as kids and another focusing on them as adults. Fukunaga has scripts for both ready, with Poulter appearing in both films, making him the star of the project.” So it’s a go.

This will be very interesting to see come together. I have faith in Fukunaga since he’s an immensely talented filmmaker, but who knows what will happen when he’s at the reigns of a big two-picture studio project. As for Will Poulter, he’s an interesting choice. This is either his big break out or a disaster… only time will tell.

by Alex Billington