It (lost deleted scene from supernatural horror film based on novel; 2017)

A leaked screenshot of Pennywise in his "Devil" form from the "baby-eating" scene.

Status: Lost

It is a 2017 American horror film directed by Andy Muschietti and is the second adaptation of Stephen King's 1986 novel of the same name after Tommy Lee Wallace's 1990 miniseries. The plot involves a group of seven kids that live in the fictional town of Derry, Maine where they are terrorized by the titular shape-shifting demon who takes on the appearance of their biggest fears; it's most preferred form being a clown.

Earlier Versions

Development of the movie first began in 2009 when Warner Bros. announced plans to make another adaptation of It for the big screen. First assigned to the project was David Kajganich with producers Dan Lin, Roy Lee, and Doug Davidson; who both previously worked together on The Invasion. The director mentioned that It would receive an R-rating and would be placed in the mid-1980's and present as a way of mirroring King's twenty-odd-year gap in the original book. He also stated that his version of Pennywise would be less 'self-conscious of his own irony and surreality," and although no specific actor was announced to be playing the clown, Kajganich mentioned that if he were still alive, Buster Keaton would be an ideal choice for the character.

In 2010, Kajganich left the project, though Roy Lee and Dan Lin were still in charge of producing. Two years later, Warner Bros brought aboard Cary Fukunaga of True Detective fame to direct the film that would now be split into two parts while Chase Palmer would co-write the script. On May 21, 2014, it was announced that the film would be moved over to WB's New Line Cinema division and on December 5 the same year, Lin stated that the first film will be a coming-of-age story for the children while the second skips ahead in time as they're adults. On May 4, 2015, it was announced that Will Poulter would be the official actor to play Pennywise after Fukunaga was "blown away" by his audition while Ty Simpkins was considered to play one of the Loser's Club members; sans Beverly or Mike obviously. According to Lin, Fukunaga was only committed to directing the first film and wanted to make his film a bit of a departure from the original novel, though would receive blessings from King after sending him the script's first draft. However, on May 25, 2015, TheWrap reported that Fukunaga dropped out as the director of It after numerous clashes with the studio involving budget cuts and compromises towards his artistic vision.

On July 16, 2015, it was announced that Andy Muschietti was in negotiations to become It's new director with his sister, Barbara, joining as producer. For a while, Will Poulter was still considered to portray the antagonist, though on June 2, 2016, it was officially announced that Bill Skarsgard would be playing Pennywise; along with revealing the actors for the Loser Seven the same day. The first promotional image of Skarsgard in his Pennywise costume was unveiled on August 16, 2016 by Entertainment Weekly and the teaser trailer that was released on March 28, 2017 gained 197 million views within 24 hours. It would eventually be released to theaters on September 8, 2017, where it broke box office records as the highest-grossing horror film of all time and received generally positive reviews. Despite Fukunaga's absence, the movie kept the same "coming-of-age" story he originally envisioned while following the book a little more closely, along with lifting some cues from the 1990 miniseries. Naturally, the movie was followed up by It: Chapter 2 as a conclusion to the story in 2019, though a movie titled It: Chapter 3 is rumoured to be in production.

Deleted Scenes

Like any movie, It had a lot of deleted scenes that are missing from the final cut, though can still be viewed in their entirety on either the DVD/Blu-Ray or searching them up online. They each consist of the following:

• Bill having dinner with his parents after Georgie's death
• A longer version of Eddie collecting his medication at Keene's pharmacy
• Bill's Dad checking the basement after It scares him there
• The Losers hesitating to go in the Neibolt house the first time
• The Losers fleeing the Neibolt House after Eddie gets injured and Pennywise is subdued
• Stanley's Dad watching over his bar mitzvah
• Stanley's bar mitzvah speech (a reshoot version was made for It: Chapter 2)
• Henry watches the Losers return to the Neibolt House; revealing that he killed his bully peers upon being indoctrinated by It
• The Losers find Georgie's walkie-talkie in the sewers
• Bill going on a vacation with his family after It is "defeated," while panning towards the drain from the opening scene
• HONORABLE MENTION: A humorous outtake of the grim opening where Georgie actually gets his boat back

However, there is one deleted scene from It (2017) that has yet to resurface in its entirety; due to its content that proved far too disturbing, even for an R-rating. In a September 2017 interview, Bill Skarsgard mentioned that he shot a "flashback scene" set during the 1600's, though looked more like himself than he did Pennywise and stated that it was made to provide a backstory of what It is, where It came from, and that It was dormant for thousands of years. The scene was written for the 2016 draft for the It script by Gary Dauberman after Muschietti took over, though does not appear in the final film. A full summary of the scene was posted onto r/ItTheMovie in October 2017 and according to the post, it would've happened after the Loser's first fight with Pennywise and before Bowers kills his father. Set on a dark midnight afternoon in 1637, it began with a 19-year-old woman named Abigail rushing into a Well House, which would be the creature's lair, as she tries to calm down her crying baby when all of a sudden, an unnatural force causes the room's chandelier lights to rapidly rotate as a black silhouette slithers from the well's grey shadows. It turns out to be none other than a naked-pale Pennywise with a barely human-like body and his huge maw full of razor-sharp teeth. As the lights hit his face, It takes on different forms at once - a man, woman, beast, and a monster. Pennywise boasts to Abigail about being the "Eater of Worlds" upon hearing her call him "the Devil" and smells the intensifying fear of her child with each cry it makes. Abigail tries offering herself to the monster in the hopes the baby will be safe, though It boasts he will take both of them; along with her husband and the rest of the world until there's nothing left but weeds. It then offers a sadistic option where he takes the baby and spares the lives of both Abigail and her other child, a six-year-old boy. As Abigail tearfully kisses away her baby and says she's sorry before turning him away, the lights in the room spin even faster while Pennywise slowly crawls towards the baby who cries once more until a sickening crunch is heard; implying It ate the child. As for Abigail, she keeps looking at the bright orange glow of the flickering "fire" which turns out to be nothing more than the Deadlights: It's truest form that causes anyone who takes one mere glance at them to either go permanently insane or die.

Availability

In a 2019 interview with CinePop before the release of It: Chapter 2, Andy Muschietti confirmed that the scene does in fact exist and that they filmed the entire sequence, but mentioned that he "could not talk about it until it lands on some version of the movie." He may have been referring to the Director's Cut editions of It and It: Chapter 2 that was said to run for about six hours together and would also include newer scenes, though as of writing, it has yet to even see the light of day. According to Finn Wolfhard during a meet and greet in 2020, he said that Muschietti has been "super busy" as he's been working on the DCEU film The Flash which he was first hired for in July 2019, though was delayed numerous times during the pandemic.

So far, the only bit of visual evidence regarding this scene is a screenshot of Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise with an all-red make-up design; no doubt taking on the form of the "Devil" that Abigail tried to curse away. The deleted scene is most likely in safe hands at either the Warner Brothers movie studio or within the Muschietti household, but until The Flash ends production and finds enough time to work on the It supercut, or even if that fabled "Chapter 3" movie gets made, it's highly unlikely we'll be seeing this controversially-sounding scene for a long time.