Director Andy Muschietti is an ‘It’ fan as well
For a guy with one of the buzziest movies of the season about to open, Andy Muschietti sounded pretty calm.
Muschietti directed “It,” the film version of the Stephen King novel. Expectations have been off the charts (the good news: the film lives up to them), but Muschietti seemed ready for the onslaught of publicity and attention.
He adapted his horrifying short film “Mama” into a feature-length version. The short is incredibly creepy, real skincrawling stuff. We began our conversation, which touches on “Mama,” on a high note. Question: The movie was really good, which makes this conversation easier.
Answer: man. Thank you, Q: Directors and actors usually don’t ask what the you thought. If you don’t like it, it’s just, “It was interesting.”
A: (Laughs) Interesting, yeah. “Congratulations. Congratulations – for nothing!” I get it. I have to do that too with fellow filmmakers. “Congratulations, man.” Or, “You made a solid movie. Good effort.” Q: “Mama” was really scary, but “It” was a ridiculously popular novel and television miniseries. Was it daunting to try this?
A: Well, I’m a big fan of (King), so I have huge expectations, too. I know what a fan expects from an adaptation of “It,” and I wanted to make a movie that would please me as a fan. It wasn’t daunting in the sense of, “Oh, I’m going to disappoint so many people who like it,” because I’m a fan, too. For me it was about basically connecting with the emotional experience of reading the book for the first time. In a way you can’t go wrong if you have a strong love for a story and then the challenges of translating it into a movie that will blow your mind away as an adult. Those were the two factors that I had in mind when starting to think about the adaptation. Q: Some of the best parts are just telling the story of the town.
A: It’s double-edged. The town is a loving environment and a nostalgic environment, but at the same time it’s an extension of evil. It is Derry, and Derry is It. I think there’s a sense of dread that’s like a slow burn that builds and reinforces itself each time an adult happens to cross the path of our Losers. The adults, of course, it’s an extension of the evil of It, and they’re so much of the fabric of the town. I love those moments, because you don’t need Pennywise all the time there to remind the audience of the presence and the dread. Q: It’s rated R, but younger teens would love it. They should sneak in.
A: (Laughs) Of course there’s regulations, but I would have loved to have seen this movie when I was like 13. Q: There’s a great bit where the kid says to Sophia Lillis, “Who let Molly Ringwald over there in the group anyway?”
A: (Laughs) Yeah, this is something I came up with on the set, actually. I have the page where I annotated that with a highlighter. It was fun, because I grew up in the ’80s. I grew up watching John Hughes films, and Molly Ringwald was huge back then. It’s a big laugh. You see it with the audience when they react. And the funny thing is that she reacts by flipping (her middle) finger (laughs). Q: I’m always interested in how directors of horror films make their sets, which aren’t inherently scary, seem that way.
A: It’s basically the mood you set. For horror I normally want to keep the set atmospheric, to keep the focus on the actors. I don’t want people to distract performers. I did this a lot in “Mama,” which was basically play scary music on the set to set a tone for everyone and basically prevent them from being noisy and disrupt the atmosIt phere. Q: How about with “It?”
A: With “It” it was a bit different, because we ran so much. When you work with a bunch of kids you’re running against the clock before they take them away, because you’re allowed to work certain hours with them. was a little more chaotic, so I couldn’t make that slow burn and atmospheric creation. But when it comes to yourself as a filmmaker, you really have to be focused on what’s on the screen, and don’t let any of the circus around you intervene.
I had quite a bit of training, because before making movies I did like 15 years of commercials. It’s hard to maintain focus on what you’re doing with all the chaos around you. But it’s doable. You just have to generate the space for you to be alone in your chair, looking at the monitor. And make everyone shut up, basically (laughs). THE MUMMY 47 METERS DOWN BEATRIZ AT DINNER VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT STEP