How 7 ‘losers’ forged a bond for It Chapter Two
Ifar right, director of It
t’s a weekday morning in Los Angeles and three “losers” - Bill Hader, James Ransone and Andy Bean - are sitting around a bright juice shop with a view of the ocean discussing babies, surf lessons and trips to Hawaii over iced coffees and eggs. It is a scene that’s far too idyllic and nice for the movie they’re promoting, It Chapter Two, which opens in the UAE today. But after the physically and psychologically taxing five-month shoot, not to mention the pressures to live up to both Stephen King’s novel and the first installment, It, which became the most successful horror movie of all time, they deserve a little bit of a break.
Hader, Ransone and Bean are just three of seven member Losers Club - Richie, Eddie and Stanley - who battled the demonic clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) as kids. They and Jessica Chastain (Beverly), James Mcavoy (Bill) and Jay Ryan (Ben) are called on to return to their hometown of Derry, Maine, 27 years later by Mike (Isaiah Mustafa). Pennywise has come back and they made a blood pact to finish the job, even if the ones who left (that is, everyone but Mike), don’t remember anything.
“I was so happy to go back,” said director Andy Muschietti. “When Chapter Two kicked off it was like going back to school, going back to Derry. Now we’re getting to the end and it’s bittersweet.”
After five straight years of work, there is a kind of ease on his part, finally, thanks to the enormous success of the first film, which earned over $700 million globally from a $35 million production budget. It also won over the critics. That goodwill played a role in recruiting what he describes as his “dream cast” to play the grown up losers for Chapter Two. Chastain, who’d worked with Muschietti on Mama, was the first to board, and she put the word out to her frequent co-star Mcavoy on the set of Dark Phoenix.
“I loved the book as a kid and I really enjoyed the movie as well,” Mcavoy said. “I didn’t need convincing. I think my exact words were ‘I’ll do that in a heartbeat.’”
Hader was actually someone his younger counterpart, Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things, suggested in an article, which amused Hader and his agent. But then a few months later Muschietti actually called to request a meeting.
“Finn owns Hollywood basically,” Hader said with a shrug. “But I’d never been in a horror movie before and I love these kinds of monster movies. I thought it would be fun.”