Georgie

www.indiegogo.com/projects/georgie-a-short-film#/

WHO WE ARE
John Campopiano is an audiovisual archivist, film writer, and producer living in Boston. He co- wrote, produced, and directed the 2017 documentary, Unearthed & Untold: The Path to PET SEMATARY and is writer and co-producer on the forthcoming documentary, Pennywise: The Story of IT. Ryan Grulich is a writer/producer/director based in Seattle. He produced the 2017 film, Foolish Mortals, a documentary about Disney’s Haunted Mansion, and has directed several short films including, I Hate Halloween, which premiered on July 28, 2018.

ORIGINS OF PROJECT IDEA
GEORGIE started out as an adventurous idea "what if?" What if, years after his apparent death, Georgie Denbrough returned to the screen? As two ardent fans of the 1990 miniseries, John and Ryan decided they wanted to explore the possibilities of that very scenario in the form of a short film. GEORGIE will shake your mind and rattle your bones.


WHY WE NEED MONEY / WHAT WE'LL DO WITH IT
GEORGIE needs your help to return to reality. Your participation will support the hiring of cast and crew, to turn what is truly a surreal and horrifying script into the cinematic return of the original Georgie Denbrough.

PERKS OFFERED
As a way of showing our appreciation for any contribution you're able to make, we have a variety of really exciting and very limited perks that you have the chance to add to your collection. These one of a kind items have been procured lovingly by the filmmakers with the IT fanatic in mind. You will only be able to see them here, so join us before the chance FLOATS away.

•  Receive a signed & personalized GEORGIE postcard from Tony Dakota! Artwork by Tom Ryan. (Limited to 150)
• Official Theater of Creeps GEORGIE enamel pin! Artwork by Zachary Jackson Brown. (Limited to 225)
• Official Fright-Rags GEORGIE t-shirt! Men & Women designs available. Artwork by Zachary Jackson Brown.
• Official GEORGIE 11x17 poster signed by Tony Dakota! (Limited to 150)

YAHOO gives us: An Oral History of 'Stephen King's It'

This article from Yahoo is a great insight into the making of the mini-series, IT.  (www.yahoo.com/tv)

Ethan Altar writes in his introduction to a series of interviews, "Twenty-five years later, Stephen King’s It still has the power to push its way into your slumbering mind in the dead of night, filling it with nightmarish visions of fortune cookies stuffed with eyeballs, balloons filled with blood and clowns with razor-sharp teeth."

Well, unfortunately -- not really.  But I wish that's how it was, so let's pretend that's reality.  (The truth is, the second half of the film is terrible.)

The Participants (In Alphabetical Order)
Dennis Christopher (Eddie Kaspbrak)
Larry Cohen (Screenwriter)
Stephen King (Author)
Bart Mixon (Special Makeup Effects Supervisor)
Annette O’Toole (Beverly Marsh)
Emily Perkins (Young Beverly Marsh)
Tim Reid (Mike Hanlon)
Marlon Taylor (Young Mike Hanlon)
Tommy Lee Wallace (Director)
Gene Warren Jr. (Special Visual Effects Supervisor)

A few of my favorite insights:

• ABC was always nervous about It, primarily the fact that it was in the horror genre, but also the eight-to-ten hour commitment. They loved the piece, but lost their nerve in terms of how many hours they were willing to commit. Eventually, they were agreed to a two-night, four-hour commitment and at that point, a couple of things happened. 
• His script for Night 2 wasn’t nearly as successful, in my opinion. For reasons of his own, he had completely moved away from the plotting of the book, and created a much smaller story, a very interior melodrama focusing on Beverly’s husband as the ultimate bad guy, or something to that effect. (That explains a lot)
• Most of the adult casting was “telephone” casting, which is, “No need to audition so-and-so for the role, they’d be brilliant.“
• Casting the kids came after casting the adults.
• Obviously the piece of casting that worked the best in the show was Tim Curry as Pennywise. (King)
• The movie, really, is only as good as its villain, and Tim carved out a place for himself as one of the great movie villains of all time.
• Filmed over two to three months on location in Vancouver, It proved a demanding shoot

. . . a lot more interesting stuff here.  Check out the article.  You'll like it.

How Scary is IT?

The Most Frightening Book Stephen King Has Ever Written

This is reposted from William Malmborg's websit (williammalmborg.com) with permission.

William Malmborg is the author of Text Message, Dark Harvest, Nikkis Secret and several other horror novels.

So, I was standing at my bookshelf the other day looking at some early printings of Stephen King paperbacks when I noticed the back cover pictured to the left. As you can see, rather than having a book description or author photo, the designers of this edition decided upon a statement from Publishers Weekly, one that boldly shouted, “The most frightening book Stephen King has ever written.” Naturally, this got me wondering which books fans found frightening, and whether or not there is any agreement from everyone upon a single title that stands above the rest. Personally, I’ve never really been frightened by anything Stephen King has written. This isn’t due to any fault with his writing; I just came upon his fiction at a point in my life when reading no longer had the ability to frighten me. Of course, this wasn’t always the case. 

As a pre and young teen, stories had the ability to produce sleepless nights, my mom and grandmother often putting this to the test with stories they found scary and wanted to share -- or wrote themselves. Even at fifteen, I was once startled by the opening of a Dean Koontz novel titled Tick Tock, but that was the last time this has really happened, and by the time I started reading Stephen King at the age of seventeen, my mind was completely desensitized to fear. 

 Ironically, I can remember a time as a young kid when just the idea or plot behind a Stephen King novel would terrify me. The Shining was a perfect example of this. I don’t remember how old I was, but at some point during my grade school years my Mom told me about the The Shining and how, as a young girl, while reading it during a train ride to Kansas, suddenly began to smell oranges. Anyone who has read The Shining will understand the significance of this and why the moment would startle a young teen reader. As it turns out, the lady next to my Mom was peeling an orange. Another story element that chilled me to the core as a kid was the idea of a clown in the sewer, which a friend told me about after he saw the movie IT on TV. That was spooky, and, for a while, after hearing about that, I made sure to keep a good distance between curbside sewers and my walking paths. I also found the idea of a secret graveyard where pets came back to life mean and angry terrifying, and hoped to god things like that didn’t really exist because I would have hated to see my dog Leo return from the grave at some point only to be a darker version of his former self. The hardcover image of Desperation startled me as well. I saw that one sitting on the bookshelf at a friend house right after its release -- his parents were Stephen King fans -- and thought to myself that I would never be brave enough to start reading such a book. How funny is that?

Now, if I had to pick a book that I considered the most frightening even though it didn’t really scare me, that book would have to be Misery simply because finding oneself in such a situation would be horrible. It’s also plausible. This isn’t to say I discount the possibility of supernatural story-lines -- I may be a skeptic, but only in the sense that I don’t blindly believe everything I hear, and always let the facts and evidence of each situation determine what is really occurring -- but with Misery, this is the type of story that can easily move from being a tale of fiction to one of non-fiction without blinking an eye. Crazy people are out there.  We read about them every day in the paper (well, online news sources), and hear about them on the news (when they aren’t focusing on some stupid political or sport sex scandal. Another tale that has frightening elements would have to be The Stand. The idea of a virus leaving our current civilization in ruins has almost become a touchstone experience thanks to Hollywood, but that doesn’t mean it isn't a plausible scenario, one that has occurred time and time again throughout history. Such events are just a fact of life, though, thankfully, one that isn’t experienced by every generation.

With those two titles established as the Stephen King tales that I find the most frightening what are some of yours? Are their any titles that completely stand above the rest in your mind? Feel free to comment here about it, or, if you want, send me a guest post that I can share with readers (email me at wlmalmborg@gmail.com with the subject matter being GUEST POST STEPHEN KING). Also, anyone want to venture a guess as to what book the picture above was taken from?

Is There A Six Hour Cut Of The IT Mini-Series ?

Check out www.bleedingcool.com's discussion of the first part of the IT mini-series.

This week we discuss Part 1 of the miniseries that influenced everyone’s fear of Tim Curry in clown makeup: IT. Listen and then be sure and join us over on Facebook to see if you agree!

Some of my favorite lines:

• "I have seen it before, but I don't remember what happens."
• First impressions: Drew: "I watched it from behind the couch.  Frame one is absolutely terrifying." That would be the opening scene where a young girl first encounters Pennywise.  "It's not quite as overwhelming as it once was."  "I have a hard time looking at him (Pennywise)"  Julia Guzman, "He (Pennywise) haunted me my whole  life."  Tony Salvaggio, "Since I had read the book a couple times before I saw the mini-series, the mini-series has always left me really cold.  It feels like TV."  (He also says Clive Barker is scarier.  For shame)  Jason Henderson, "King really believes in the magic.  He has a big Bradbury, Serling streak.  A lot of times the adaptations of Stephen King are really sentimental.  A little melodramatic.  A little cheesy."  
• "The people playing the adults are like the A-Game."  
• "As you get older, childhood does begin to fade." (Discussing it is strange they all forgot about the battle with the clown until they get a call from Mike.)
• "On a metaphorical level, this is about child abuse."
• "It's difficult to stop talking about Pennywise."
• "As far as monster make up goes, he looks very much  like Bozo the clown with a different color scheme.  Occasionally they'll put some weird contacts in his eyes or give him razor sharp teeth.  It's funny something as simple as that can be so effective."
• "Time Curry's energy as this character has gone on to be a very iconic figure among horror villains." 
• "I don't have a fear of clowns.  I have a fear of THIS clown."

And then there was this: Salvaggio says, "It was an almost unfilmable thing.  There was a six hour cut.  Apparently Stephen King liked the six hour cut, but not this version."  I was unaware there was a six hour edition.

1990 Visit To The Set Of IT

Steve Newton has reposted his 1990 article about the filming of IT, which he originally posted for Fangoria, #99.  He comments that the IT miniseries ended up "sucking."  Sadly, he's right.  However, the nice thing about covering the filming of IT was that he didn't yet know it was going to be dreadful.

About the evil clown he portrayed, Curry said,

“Basically he’s just pure evil, really, and he can also metamorphose into various other forms—mostly into the image feared most by whoever he’s appearing to. Or he can also seductively become other people. At one point he turns into somebody’s dead father, at another point he turns into the girl that the hero’s in love with. 

“I won’t tell you what he turns into at the end,” adds Curry with a wink. “But basically he’s completely irredeemable; he’s the kind of chap that’s entirely without charm.”

and

“I off quite a few people here and there,” says Curry, “one way or another. But Pennywise turns out not to be that physical, actually—it’s mostly mental cruelty. What’s fun about him is that a clown is traditionally a very cosy, comforting kind of cheery image, and Pennywise is none of these things. I think of him all the time as a smile gone bad—that’s my image for him.”

Curry's joy in Pennywise  shined through his performance; he was great!  In fact, I  thought the first half  of the film was  pretty good.  It's when the story had to rely on the adult actors that it began to feel like a cheap melodrama.

Newton's Full article is at www.straight.com

Why Is IT So Mean?

I've been on vacation with my family.  My mother loved the Stephen King novel IT. She mentioned several times that she wanted to see the mini-series, even though I discouraged her.  However, I finally gave in (okay, she didn't have to push too hard) and spent the $7.  I might have paid too much.

I haven't seen the entire mini-series in years. I was startled to discover just how good it is!  "This thing still bites," I said. The first half is excellent.  I find the scenes with the children over the top scary.  When the clown in interacting with children, their fear is very real.  But then something really bad happens -- and it's not Pennywise -- it's part 2.  All of it.

Part 2 should have been the stronger part, since it not only contains Pennywise's defeat, but well known actors take the stage.  These are people who, by 1990, had plenty of time to hone their craft.  But they were terrible!  The show sinks into melodrama.  Scenes that should scare, get a laugh.  When Pennywise makes bad  things come out of the fortune cookies, it's just flat out funny.  In fact, not once does the second half of IT produce a scare of any kind.

There is something sincere in the children's portrayals, and something quite plastic about the adults. Interesting how young people who did not have the time to learn to pretend brought the real deal to the small screen.

The second half fails to produce any real drama, romance or tension.  The viewer is not left wondering if Pennywise  will live or die.  In fact, by the time we get to the final battle with the monster, we've lost so much interest in these characters that it would be just A-Okay if the monster did take them down.

My favorite scenes: 

• The attack at the beginning of the show.  The girl playing on her trike, then you see a clown through the hanging cloths on the cloths line, then just a knocked over trike with the wheel still spinning -- outstanding!
• Pennywise and Georgie.  This is great stuff because it's so scary.  Everything about the scene is perfect.  Georgie scared of the dark basement; the rainy day; the boat floating in the drain; and that clown.  The scene is so good, it leaves you talking to the TV.  "Don't do it, Georgie!  Run!"  But his brother made him that boat, and your heart just goes out to the little guy.
• Pennywise and Bev.  When Bev hears the children's voices coming from the drain, I think that is down right spooky.   Worse, when the balloon explodes with blood all over the bathroom, it seems a little silly at first -- until she realizes her father can't see the blood!  She is a quick thinker and tells her daddy it was only a spider that scared her.
• Stanley's suicide, with the word IT written in blood in the bathtub.  My mom thought the scene was reminiscent of Psycho, where Janet Lee slides down the shower wall and you see a trail of blood.
• The scenes with the scrap book are kinda fun.  I like it when the thing drips blood, or when the pictures from back-when comes to life with Pennywise taking center stage.

Least favorite scenes: 

(Please keep in mind that this does not mean I disliked the same scene's in the book.  In fact, often these were scenes I thought rocked in the novel and was saddened they were not brought to life with any zeal.) 

• The attack on Pennywise at the end.
• Bill's final ride on Silver.  Great in the book -- not so great on TV.  Because, of  course, if your ride fast enough on a bike, people come out of their monster-induced coma.  
• Library with blood balloons.  Seriously?  And, only the Loosers Club is supposed to see the balloons, or Pennywise for that matter -- but there is a lady in the scene who definitely jumps when the balloon pops.
• . . . this list can get too long and critical.  You get the idea.

My favorite stupid line: Adult Bev to Ben, "Why is IT so mean?"  Why is it so mean?  WHY IS IT SO MEAN? BECAUSE IT'S A MONSTER!  They don't make nice monsters in Derry, you have to go to Mayberry for that one!

The 50's
The show authenticates a small town circa 1950's so well, it makes the stuff with the children more believable.  You get the feeling this really happened back then.

I was a Knotts Berry Farm with my family this week when a quartet came into the Johnny Rockets there  and asked if they could sing for us.  Sure!  Their song?  "It's alright."  Same song used in the movie during the dinner scene.  (The group was The MoonRays)

Final thought: There isn't much they can do on screen that beats what Stephen King can do with a  typewriter. 

MSN Looks At Stephen King TV The Good And The Really Bad

MSN Entertainment reports that  Under The Dome came out swinging, coming out as the second-highest rated drama debut this year (per Nielsen).  

The article, by Barbara Card Atkinson, goes on to discuss the good and the bad of Stephen King TV.

I found this note on The Dead Zone series interesting:

They did this one right, too -- at least for a while. The series starred Anthony Michael Hall as a psychic loner, and the series premiere broke records for the USA Network at the time, attracting 6.4 million viewers. The series ran six seasons, but viewer numbers had dropped enough that a seventh season was abandoned with no series finale. 

Reading the lists of Good and Worst -- I found out I like a lot of Stephen King TV that no one else does.  I thought both the Tommyknockers  and The Shining were great.  The Tommyknockers felt a bit soap operish at times and too closed in -- things Under  The Dome has avoided thus far -- but I still  like the story.  Oh, and the spaceship in Tommyknockers was a disappointment.  But that moment when the kid does a magic trick and makes his brother disappear. . . and then can't bring him back! -- that was great television.

I also liked the 2002 Carrie a lot. I thought it managed to bring new ideas to the story while remaining pretty faithful to the book.

I do think this note  on Bag of Bones was insightful on Atkinson's part:

"This miniseries ran three hours, which might have been an hour too long, or several hours too short. More time would have allowed for better character development; less time might have forced a much-needed pace tightening."

And also Atkinson gives this interesting explanation to the mediocre  response to The Shining miniseries, "it was another case where the novel was so dense with backstory and internal experiences (and audiences missing those creepy twins and bloody elevators) that it couldn't be roundly brought to the screen."

When it comes to The Shining, I've hoped for a directors cut that would restore some scenes that Garris cut out.

Even with a love  for bad Stephen King television -- I cannot offer and defense for The Langoliers.

THE GOOD:
IT
THE STAND
SALEM'S LOT
THE DEAD ZONE

THE WORST:
THE SHINING.
THE TOMMYKNOCKERS
STORM OF THE CENTURY
CARRIE
SOMETIMES THEY COME BACK
ROSE RED
THE LANGOLIERS
NIGHTMARES & DREAMSCAPES
BAG OF BONES

Superman's Girlfriend Killed Pennywise

My daughter is watching Superman III.  The plot is. . . well, what it is.  It's neat to see Christopher Reeves playing Superman/Kent.  Superman returns home to Smallville and is reunited with his old crush, Lana Lang.

Watching Lanna, I kept thinking, "Why is she so familiar?"  I asked my wife, "Who is that?"  My wife said, "Well, you'd know her because she starred in the Stephen King adaptation of IT.  She's the adult version of Beverly Marsh."  OH!

Back to Superman III.  I forgot how funny Richard Pryor is.  This movie is actually very silly; almost slap stick.  But I like it.  Maybe because I had no expectations, I'm left enjoying it.  And, it has one big thing going for it -- it's not Superman 4.

By the way, O'Toole also played Martha Kent in Smallville.  No  wonder she was able to kill Pennywise. . . she was Superman's girlfriend, and his mama.  (in that strange order, mind you).

wouldn't IT be cool if

Photo credit HERE
Georgie McNuggets anyone?

With news of a new IT movie coming out -- in two installments -- I  decided to offer up some of my thoughts.  I offer these for free (FREE) to Hollywood.  You're so welcome!

1. There is no need to remake the entire IT movie.  IT was made as a mini-series, and half of it is pretty good!  How about this. . . just re-film the parts with the adults.  

2. There is no need to re-script the novel, the mini-series script did it justice.  It was special effects and some acting that made it. . . well, a little lame.  Not big time lame, no sir!  But just a little. . . not as cool as it could have been.  Can you use an old script?  I mean, why not?  It was actually pretty faithful to the book, and worked through some of the problems in an acceptable way.

3. Could we please have Tim Curry again?  Don't care if he's old now and has to do this with a cane -- he was awesome.  The scariest clown ever.

4. Don't forget 11.22.63.  Woldn't it be cool if the scene in 11.22.63, where Jack meets Bev and Richie, appeared in the IT movie?  I mean, that wold be beyond coolified.

5. Please keep  the years right!  There was talk of moving the past scenes up to the 80's, and then the scenes where  they are adults up to the present.  RESIST!  The stuff from the 50's was so cool!  

DVD Verdict: IT

Patrick Naugle at DVD Verdict has posted a very strong, insightful review of the IT mini-series.  I like the format DVD Verdict takes; it's kind of a "Judge Dread" approach -- they build the case and render the verdict themselves. 

I agree with all of Naugle's conclusions!  I enjoyed the mini-series, but as I mentioned before, I was dismayed when my young children enjoyed it.  They're suppsed to be scared, not excited! 

Naugle brings up some issues I had not considered.  We all know about the small budget, the lame special effects and the made for TV limitations; but Naugle digs a layer deeper into the acting itself.  He gives Harry Anderson, Tim Curry and John Ritter high marks, but no such luck for Richard Thomas.  I had never thought about how much I don't like Thomas in this role!  But he's right, it doesn't work at all!  And I really like Richard Thomas -- usually. 

What Naugle misses is just how good the child actors are.  I find myself very engaged when the kids are on screen, and yawning when the adults take their turn.  Yet, it's the adult actors we remember; could it be because they're the ones who dropped the ball.  Maybe not the actors, maybe the adult story is not as interesting.  Either way, IT is about children, and in the mini-series, the children shine (and float!).

Check it out here: DVD review of IT

Reflections On IT miniseries

My kids and I watched IT the other day.  Their request, I promise.  "Won't you be scared of clowns?"  There was a resounding "NO!"  Sure enough, there was no fear in our house.  To quote a five year old, "Oh, IT. . . I love that show so much!"  I'm not sure she understood that the clown. . .

Some reflections:

1. IT falls into the "drama" category more than "horror."
2. IT is very much like Stand By Me.  We watched that the night before.  Both Bill D. in IT and Gordie in Stand by Me have lost a brother.  Both have become the invisible boy.  Both are told not to go in their brothers room.  Both are part of a larger club of losers. 
3. The special effects were not the best. --11 year old.
4. The first half is definitely stronger than the second.  I find it funny to listen to the commentary, which is all the adult actors.  They say things like, "The kid who played me. . ."  Huh?  Why not find out that kids name before doing the commentary?  I think the kids out performed the adults.  Both in individual scenes, and as a group, the kids shine.

Here's our rating:
5yr old: . . . doesn't understand ratings.  But in her book, it did not rise to the Indian In the Cupboard level of great.
8yr old: 4 out of 5
11yr old: 4 out of 5
Me: 3 out of 5  (But I read the book and so I know how awesome it could be)

All agreed that we wanted to give it a better rating, if only for the special effects.  One girl said, "all the lines were great!  But the special effects weren't so good."

Having watched this again, I am more excited about a movie version.  Something that leans more toward the scary.  Seriously, the werewolf was laughable!  And while Tim Curry was an awesome Pennywise, very energetic, I don't think he was scary.  I look forward to a true horror flick.