The IT movie doesn't pull any punches, realizing Stephen King's chilling book with R-rated fervor. But had it used one of the earlier scripts, it could have been so much scarier - and batsh*t insane.In real life, IT doesn't come round every 27 years. Warner Bros. have been trying to make a feature film since 2009, and in 2012 nabbed Cary Fukunaga (best known for helming every episode of True Detective Season 1) to direct. He worked on the film for the better part of four years, seeing it very close to production. His version, which would have had Will Poulter as Pennywise, was eventually scrapped when Fukunaga stepped away from the project, reportedly after Warner Bros. started meddling with his idea; per her statements, they wanted something more focused on horror conventions than his weightier, darker drama.Two of those drafts he did with writing partner Chase Palmer - one from 2014 and another from 2015 - have made their way online and now the resulting film - directed by Andy Muschietti based on a script from Gary Dauberman (of which an early 2016 draft has also done the rounds) - is in cinemas we have a proper idea of the crazy that was cut. Today we're going to take a look at what could have been, looking at all three versions (which will be referred to by year of submission).Stephen King fans may want to look away because we're going to see something playing very liberally with the source.

Many of The Original Ideas Are Still In The Finished Film

Before we begin, it's worth noting the similarities between Fukunaga's film and Muschietti's. It's almost accepted as fact by many in King fandom who eagerly anticipated the original version that most of the ideas were totally scrapped, leaving Fukunaga's IT destined to be an eternal "what if?" project. And while there are many, many crazy things that have been cut, much of the core remains. Palmer and Fukunaga still have a screenwriting credit on the released movie and it's not just studio obligations.

Most fundamentally is the basic structure - having teenage and adult Losers as separate movies (originally subtitled The Losers Club and Pennywise, now Chapter 1 and Chapter 2) and updating the setting from the 1950s and 1980s to 1980s and 2010s respectively was Fukunaga's baseline pitch. But further, many of the places where the film deviates from the book - Bill, Richie, Stan and Eddie are already firm friends at the start, Henry Bowers becomes a more overt antagonist, IT embodies more fundamental fears instead of horror icons - originate in Fukunaga's original 2014 draft. And that's nothing on the amount reused dialogue and very concept of a more Harlequin Pennywise (albeit originally with a more ravaged design).

Related: Andy Muschietti's On How His IT Evolved From Cary Fukunaga's Draft

Those are big picture plot points, of course, and none go too dark; they're all things Warners were clearly OK with. When you go deeper you can see where the controversy began.

The Early Drafts Are More Sexual

Beverly Attacked by IT

Fukunaga's vision is typically described as more psychological and sexual, and boy that's definitely true. You see this most prominently with Beverly, who was going to have an explicit abuse story with her father - in early drafts the scene when he assaults her is flat-out attempted rape, with the 13-year-old described as having her clothing removed before escaping. This is, of course, implied to be under the influence Pennywise and, in the 2015 version, IT actually spared his life as a child explicitly knowing he'd go on to cause her more misery.

But, beyond that, overall there's a stronger sexual undercurrent to the entire story. In the 2014 draft, IT is first seen as a masturbating woman emerging from menstrual blood and in 2015 Richie is heavily implied to be bisexual, possibly gay.

Of course, sexual awakening does remain in part in the 2017 version. Beverly is repeatedly (and falsely) accused of being a slut and is perved on by various people around town, and in a less insidious sense her part in the group has a big impact on the boys, leading to a subtle love triangle between her, Will and Ben. It's just not quite a skin-crawling as what came before (although it's worth also stating the controversial sex scene from the book was never involved).

This wouldn't have just been sex for sex's sake, though. The whole point of these elements was to hammer home the deep-set psychological damage IT's presence has done to Derry, which runs through a lot of the initial pitch; the creature in Fukunaga and Palmer's drafts takes the form fundamental, grounded fears, with anything more extreme (Pennywise besides) occurring offscreen.

Fukunaga Wasn't Going To Be Too Faithful to the Book

These tonal deepenings and highly mature coming-of-age story are backed up by shifts to various character's arcs - Mike and his father's relationship and their link to the past is a centerpiece in the 2014 screenplay, while Stan's bar mitzvah is a key plot point - allegedly somewhat inspired by the writers' childhoods that altogether would have led to a film incredibly distanced from the source novel. And this was totally the intention; Fukunaga had character names changed for no clear narrative or thematic purpose and in the 2015 draft made Stan a goldfish. Comparisons have been made to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, using the basic plot outline of King's book to tell a different story, and that assessment's not too far off. Had either screenplay been made, you can bet the author wouldn't have been quite as high in his praises.

Related: IT Movie: Remake or Readaptaion?

On the flipside, Dauberman's 2016 take veered incredibly close to the 1990 miniseries, with several scenes overtly referencing some of Tommy Lee Wallace's creations. Muschietti has since revealed he doesn't much care for the TV effort, suggesting these were cut down on his insistence. Indeed, for all it took from Fukunaga's version, the finished film is much closer to the book's story. Although we're yet to really get into the true crazy stuff.

Pennywise in the Past in IT

Pennywise: Origins

The kids find out Derry's chequered history in pretty much the same way across all the drafts - Ben is a history buff who noticed the original settlers were slowly killed and problems then occur every 27 years. However, it wasn't always through old drawings we would have experienced this.

The 2014 draft has two previous events detailed: we see the KKK destroying a black speakeasy under IT's leadership, something that ties further into the greater focus on Mike; and in a saloon, a lumberjack calmly hacks up a ground of card players while everyone else sits nonplussed as Pennywise plays on the piano.

Read More: How IT Movie Actor Went About Intellectualizing' Pennywise

The 2015 version, however, is the one of real interest. It takes us back to colonial times when Derry was first settled as a proto-Pennywise - it's yet to gain the full clown form - attacks a young girl. Her mother tries to save her but is easily pacified and given a choice: stay and have her entire family killed or leave and just sacrifice her daughter. She chooses the latter, symbolically starting Derry's constant ignorance of the monster that owns their town. This was actually kept in the 2016 rewrite, albeit toned down, and seemed to feature a more Tim Curry-esque sprite.

It's an origin of the Pennywise figure and IT's relationship with the town; not only a more detailed backstory than in the finished film, but one that thematically links into the cross-generation horror inherent in the story. And it could have been even more; in the 2015 draft we weren't going to see Georgie actually sucked into the sewer and several other events involving Pennywise - Eddie seeing the Leper - occurred offscreen. It was a very different presentation of the clown, one that was more about mounting terror than jump-crafted sequences.

The Real IT and the Ending

Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise in IT

As well as going into Pennywise's previous crimes, Fukunaga was also going to explore some of the true nature of IT in the finale. In Muschietti's version, the only real hint of the villain's inter-dimensional origin comes when Pennywise tries to capture Beverly, opening his face into a mysterious portal. In the 2014 version, when the gang head into the sewers, they would first come against a horde of spiders - a reference to IT's base form in the novel - and then find an upside down waterfall into a pool containing a giant starfish - how Fukunaga imagined the monster. The kids battle the tentacled being, then Will has a showdown with IT as Georgie and Pennywise akin to the finished film that's resolved in a more immediately personal manner.

Related: IT 2017's Ending Explained

By the 2015 redo, things were much closer to the final movie, which is a mixture of King's book, the 1990 film and Fukunaga's vision. And all endings have the gang ultimately vowing to return and parting ways Stand By Me-style, although how the fact they will indeed be called on again is conveyed varies. Early versions had a balloon float up the camera and pop, signaling IT's survival, whereas the released film ends on a more emotional note, with the only hints of more to come being the "Chapter One" title card and Pennywise's laughter at the end of the credits.

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The debate of whether Fukunaga's IT would have been better than what we've got will never be resolved and, even with two drafts of his script available, it's hard to come down strong either way. There's a lot of good ideas in there but at the same time it's perhaps needlessly more intense and Muschietti managed to hit comparable notes without having to sidestep the book; the rapport between the characters and their emotional arcs - indeed, the ultimate focus on this being a scary drama than all-out horror - are still there, just in a more era-evocative way.

For King fans definitely, the 2017 release is likely to hew closer to what they'd want given the bold changes Fukunaga was going to make. As for everyone else, we avoided the starfish. Which is probably for the best.

Next: The Original IT Movie is Actually Pretty Terrible

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