IT: Original Director Cary Fukunaga Says He Wanted To Make THE SHINING, But The Studio Wanted ANNABELLE

Hot off the success of HBO's True Detective, Cary Fukunaga became one of the most highly sought after directors in Hollywood. He was quickly hired to take the helm of Warner Bros.' adaptation of Stephen King's It, but despite penning the screenplay, he walked away from the project weeks before production was supposed to begin. 

Rumour has it his vision for the project was arguably even weirder than the novel it was based on; however, much of what he wrote did find its way into Andy Muschietti's version. 

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter to discuss No Time to Die, Fukunaga opened up about his decision to leave the movie. "I was on that for four or five years with Warners and then it got moved to New Line, right before we were about to go into production," the filmmaker recalls. "I think New Line’s view of what they wanted and my view of what I wanted were very different."

"I wanted to do a drama with horror elements, more like The Shining. I think they wanted to do something more [pure horror] like Annabelle [from the Conjuring films]. That was essentially the disconnect." Ultimately, New Line did end up with two commercially successful blockbusters, and while the second part wasn't quite as well-received critically, it was still a financial success.

Fukunaga was also quick to dismiss speculation about what happened behind the scenes, and noted that he continues to work with It producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee. "If I was a difficult director, they wouldn’t necessarily want to be working with me," he pointed out to the trade. 

It's a shame we never got to see his vision for It, but as there were also some pretty bizarre reports about how the director coped with his first big budget blockbuster, No Time to Die, it should be interesting to see how that turns out. The hope is that it will be a fitting farewell for Daniel Craig's 007, but the review embargo isn't set to lift until right before the movie is released in the UK next week.