The long, winding road to get a new take on Stephen King’s It to the big screen has added a new little bend. Warner Bros, which has been trying to get a fresh adaptation of the classic horror novel into theaters for over five years, has shifted the production over to its subsidiary New Line. The thought process is, after the success of New Line’s The Conjuring last year, Warners wants to return the studio to its horror roots. After all, New Line was once the House That Freddy Built.

It is one of those rare iconic properties that has actually never been a feature film. Everyone knows what it is, thanks to Stephen King’s best-seller, and everyone has images and memories associated with it- thanks to the smash hit TV miniseries from 1990, but it’s never been in theaters. So it makes sense that Warner Bros has been keen on making a big splash with It on the silver screen. To that end, they hired Cary Fukunaga back in 2012, with the hopes of him directing two It movies. That move paid off, assuming he’s still on board, because Fukunaga’s stock has never been higher than it is right now. He’s coming off the colossal critical success of HBO’s True Detective, and we’re surely going to hear his name a lot when Awards Season starts up again later this year.

The story revolves around an inter-dimensional predatory life-form, which has the ability to transform itself into its prey’s worst fears, allowing it to exploit the phobias of its victims. It mostly takes the form of a sadistic, wisecracking clown called “Pennywise the Dancing Clown”. The protagonists are “The Losers Club”, a group of outcast kids who discover Pennywise and vow to destroy him by any means necessary. The series takes place over two different time periods, the first when the Losers first discover Pennywise as children, and the second when they’re called back as adults to defeat Pennywise, who has resurfaced.

[Synopsis Courtesy of WikiPedia]

Just as the narrative structure of the story spans two timelines, so will the films. The first film will take place in the past, when the protagonists are kids. The second film will take place in present day, with everyone all grown up.