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“The World Of IT” Is The Perfect Coffee Table Book For Anyone Obsessed With The Movies
If you’re as big a fan of It as I am, then you should probably know there’s a GORGEOUS book called The World of IT. Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS It’s an official behind-the-scenes companion book to both It Chapter One and It Chapter Two and not only is it full of beautiful drawings,…
If you’re as big a fan of It as I am, then you should probably know there’s a GORGEOUS book called The World of IT.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
It’s an official behind-the-scenes companion book to both It Chapter One and It Chapter Two and not only is it full of beautiful drawings, photos, and stories…it’s also just really cool! Here are a bunch of things I learned from it:
1.
It took about three hours every day to get Bill Skarsgård into prosthetics, makeup, and costume as Pennywise.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
2.
The creepy abstract painting of a woman in Stan’s father’s office has a name — Judith.
*Shudders*
3.
Bill Hader’s three daughters — who are 9, 6, and 3 years old — LOVE Pennywise.
Hader said, “Their whole thing is they want to meet Pennywise. I was FaceTiming with my daughters and they were like, ‘Where is the clown’s office?'”
4.
Although the fictional town of Derry was inspired by Stephen King’s hometown of Bangor, Maine, filming took place in a town called Port Hope in Canada.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
The film’s director Andy Muschietti explained, “Port Hope is a town by a stream and close to a forested area similar to The Barrens.”
5.
The “Jade of the Orient” restaurant was filmed at a real Chinese restaurant called The Mandarin in Mississauga, Ontario.
The location is specifically on 87 Matheson Boulevard East, should you be in the neighborhood!
6.
The fortune cookies shaking and cracking open were a real, practical effect.
“They took, like, six watch batteries (each),” said special effects set supervisor Shuba Gupta.
7.
And the creature with the baby head that comes out of one of the fortune cookies is supposed to signify that the Losers had to remain children in their minds since they had to go back to Derry and face Pennywise.
Yuck.
8.
The sewer entrance in the film is not real and was actually built into a practical location by the production team.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
It was built on an area in Rouge Valley, Toronto. “There was a nice little cove where there was a bank high enough to receive an actual 6-foot-tall culvert — a sewer entrance,” said production designer Claude Paré.
9.
The Pennywise unfolding out of the refrigerator scene was done by a female contortionist (with some CG help).
Producer (and Andy Muschietti’s sister) Barbara Muschietti explained, “The contortionist is amazing. She can fold in half and do all these things that are going to help visual effects.”
10.
The Leper’s nasty face was a practical, pullover, silicone mask with a removable eye that the performer could look through.”
“Andy wanted him to have his eyes completely offset. So, one eye is actually over his eyebrow and the other one is directly over his eye, but Andy didn’t want him to blink, either, so we couldn’t use contact lenses. The pullover mask had a removable eye that he could look through,” explained special makeup effects supervisor Sean Sansom.
11.
Four locations in total were used to construct the interior and exterior of Neibolt House.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
However, according to Muschietti, they built the entire exterior of the house on location.
12.
And, surprisingly, the interior of Neibolt House was shot in a real, abandoned house.
The 116-year-old mansion is called Cranfield House, located on 450 Paper Ave. in Toronto.
13.
However, the interior of the abandoned house had to be remodeled to bring it back to its original, Victorian, state.
“The owners added some poor-looking architecture that covered the Victorian feel of that house, we stripped the place back to its original state, which we then enhanced and augmented,” said Paré.
14.
Barbara Muschietti said they had around 160 people audition for the role of Pennywise.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
“Out of those auditions, we could have made 20 different movies,” she said.
15.
Jaeden Martell (young Bill) initially auditioned to play Eddie.
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Become a founding memberMartell explained, “I guess I was a little similar to Eddie because I always felt small and I was afraid of certain things. Then Andy (Muschietti) saw me, and I was bigger, and I guess he saw more Bill in my personality.”
16.
James McAvoy (older Bill) actually had nightmares about Pennywise before filming.
The actor explained, “I remember not being freaked out by the book when I was a kid, but when I reread the book before doing the movie, I actually had nightmares about Pennywise and some of his forms. That was weird.”
17.
A lot of the toys in the pile of Pennywise’s cistern were made by Muschietti’s close friend Nicolas Piñol, an artisanal toymaker.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
“We ordered a lot of his toys, and a big part of the pile is his toys. We’re happy that part of that pile was his,” said Barbara Muschietti.
18.
The Paul Bunyan statue is based on a real one in Bangor, Maine (Stephen King’s hometown and inspiration for Derry).
Production actually built a 24-foot tall fiberglass statue in Port Hope for the shoot, though.
19.
Some of the research Mike has in his apartment as an adult includes a drawing of “Devil worship in Derry,” a gargoyle with a mouth like Pennywise’s, and a creepy drawing of a man hypnotizing a missing women through a mysterious light emanating from his mouth.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
Super chill.
20.
Isaiah Mustafa (older Mike) kept the It audiobook on a constant loop leading up to filming.
Interestingly, he actually had a childhood fear of clowns and “spooky clowns coming out of sewer drains.” He couldn’t get past reading the first chapter of It when he was younger, either.
21.
Muschietti actually wanted to include the Losers’ clubhouse in the first movie, but couldn’t do it because he had to make a “slimmer narration.”
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
“I swore I would bring it back in Chapter Two,” he said.
22.
The “dirt” that Ben gets buried in during the final face off with Pennywise was actually paper snow (a product often used by special effects teams) that was dyed brown.
They couldn’t use real dirt because it would’ve crushed actor Jay Ryan IRL.
23.
And finally, Warner Bros. spent nearly a decade developing the project.
Warner Bros. / Courtesy of ABRAMS
Director Muschietti was hired in July 2015 and Skarsgård was hired to play Pennywise in June 2016, less than a month before filming began.
Wanna dive deeper into the creepiness (and coolness)? Get The World of IT from Amazon now for $24.49!
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