BEVERLY HILLS: In 1989, when Stephen King had already published more than 20 books, three teenagers were discovering his horror novel “It,” a 1,100-page epic about a group of adolescent outcasts and a shapeshifting villain who most often manifests as a child-eating clown.
Those teenage readers grew up to become filmmakers, and they joined forces to make “It” into a movie, opening Friday. Director Andy Muschietti, screenwriter Gary Dauberman and producer Seth Grahame-Smith say King’s work shaped the storytellers they are today, and his approval of their adaptation is critical if they are to consider the film a success.
“There is no way I would be a writer or a novelist without Stephen King,” said Grahame-Smith, author of “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” and “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” both of which were adapted for the screen. “The last thing we would ever want is to be part of a lesser Stephen King movie.”
“He is definitely on my Rushmore of horror writers,” Dauberman said, also mentioning Edgar Allan Poe, Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine.
If King dislikes the film, “it is like disappointing a family member in a way,” said the screenwriter, who counts the horror hit “Annabelle: Creation” among his credits. “And my wife’s from Maine (like King), so I am like, ‘Am I going to be able to go back and visit?’ He is just everywhere.”
Muschietti said King is one of the greatest creative influences in his life. “I am wired with his way of telling stories,” he said.
But with “It,” the filmmakers immediately made two major changes to the original novel: they chopped it in half and shifted its setting by 30 years.
“It just became evident that you can not take an 1,100-plus page book and condense it down into one movie,” Grahame-Smith said.
The novel centers on seven characters in Derry, Maine, during two periods in their lives: as kids in the late 1950s, and as adults in the mid-’80s. The film, though, focuses only on their childhood, when they first meet Pennywise the Dancing Clown. And it is set around the time the filmmakers first discovered the book.
Today’s moviegoers may be more nostalgic for the 1980s than the 1950s, Grahame-Smith said.
“They remember growing up and being teenagers in the 1980s, so it just made sense to push it forward,” he said. “So that ultimately when we do hopefully get to tell the second part of the story, it will be present day.”
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