With 'It,' Hollywood looks for hope in a classic of fear
TORONTO - Film director Andy Muschietti stood on a soundstage and swiveled his head around the subterranean world he'd created.
The boyish-faced Argentine was attempting to bring "It," the epically scaled Stephen King novel, to cinematic life.
Behind Muschietti, a winding set of constructed sewer tunnels crisscrossed like an Escher painting. A half-dozen child actors rehearsed looks of gasping horror. High above loomed a tower of creepdom - a multi-story mound studded with protruding shopping carts, bicycles and used clothing to form the world's most macabre Christmas tree.
"I think we may need to do this a little bigger," Muschietti said.
He was referring, presumably, to the emotional feel of the scene. The director didn't need to supersize much else about the project, which centers on the self-anointed "Losers Club" of early adolescents terrorized by demonic clown Pennywise. Everything
