Thrilled As I Am For The Return Of Pennywise, The IT: Welcome To Derry Trailer Makes Me Worry About The Stephen King Series

The final countdown to Never Flinch is on! In just a few days – specifically on May 27 – copies of Stephen King’s latest novel will be available at online shops and stores everywhere. I wrote about the book as the main story of the previous edition of The King Beat, and I’m sure that the tome will be highlighted in my feature next week, but the focus today is all on adaptations, including my take on the IT: Welcome To Derry trailer that dropped a couple days ago.

Our first real look at the upcoming Stephen King TV series is just one of this week’s headlines, though. Developments since last Thursday have left me both with an opportunity to express some optimism about a long-developing King movie that has been dormant for the last few years, and share news about a cool screening of Children Of The Corn this summer.

The IT: Welcome To Derry Trailer Is Not What I Expected, And I’m A Touch Nervous About The HBO Show Now

I consider myself what could be called a “light apologist” when it comes to IT: Chapter Two. The adult-centric narrative and the final battle in Stephen King’s 1986 horror epic famously aren’t as strong as the majority of the book, and while that put the anticipated 2019 sequel behind the proverbial eight ball from the jump, I mostly enjoy how the movie treats the material. The one thing that I particularly don’t like about the adaptation, however, is how much we see in the film of the Losers Club as kids: the narrative should be entirely focused on the reunion of Bill, Ben, Beverly, Richie, Eddie, and Mike (RIP Stan Uris), but the film is overburdened with flashback sequences set in 1989 that suggest the filmmakers were afraid to let go of the coming-of-age dynamics that helped make IT: Chapter One a huge success.

Watching the new trailer that was released this week for IT: Welcome To Derry (which you can check out above), I find myself filled with consternation that the upcoming prequel series might be making a similar error.

In recent months, the thing that has gotten me most excited for the HBO series has been its approach to the source material. It has been reported constantly that the show would be focusing on a particular section of Stephen King’s IT – specifically the story of the horrific disaster at the club The Black Spot – and I’ve been thrilled about that approach given that part of the novel has never gotten focus before in an adaptation (neither in the 2017/2019 movies nor the miniseries from 1990). Watching the trailer, however, I see practically none of that story represented. Instead, I see what looks like a rehash of the kid-centric narrative from IT: Chapter One, albeit set in the early 1960s instead of the late 1980s.

It’s possible that this preview is meant to be more of a tone-setter than anything else, and that the show itself will properly put the focus on the story of The Black Spot and the central characters involved… but for me, the teaser raises some red flags instead of simply getting me more excited for the show (which really should have been a slam dunk). It’s definitely something that I’ll be keeping my eye on regarding IT: Welcome To Derry as we get closer and closer to its premiere on HBO and HBO Max this fall.

Lynne Ramsay Just Premiered Her First Feature Film In Eight Years, And I’m Keeping Fingers Crossed A Stephen King Movie Is Still On Her Docket

Every artist has their own rate of productivity. Stephen King is regarded as a marvel for his ability to publish at least one new book every year (be it a novel, a collection of short stories, a non-fiction work), and there are filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh, who notably had two films arrive in theaters within the first three months of 2025. Be it for creative, personal, or business reasons, others take considerably more time between released works – and filmmaker Lynne Ramsay is a perfect example.

Going back to 1999, Ramsay has made and released four features (Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar, We Need To Talk About Kevin, and You Were Never Really Here), and it’s been eight years since fans got to see a new film from her. Thankfully, that drought is soon coming to an end, as the filmmaker's latest – Die, My Love starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence – just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in advance of its arrival in theaters this June – and now that she is back in action, I’m very much hoping that she returns to her plans to adapt one of Stephen King’s most underrated novels: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

This hope of mine dates back nearly five years, as it was back in November 2020 that Ramsay first became attached to take the helm of the project, with Christy Hall, the co-creator of Netflix's under-appreciated series I Am Not Okay With This, penning the script. The book being one of King’s shorter novels, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon sports a narrative that is ideal for the big screen treatment, and it’s a perfectly cinematic tale of survival in the woods with a wonderful protagonist to follow. There are some roadblocks that stand in the way of the movie getting made, but that’s not stopping me from keeping my fingers crossed.

For those who aren't familiar with the book, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was first published in 1999, and its lead character is Trisha McFarland: a nine-year-old girl who begins the story going along with her brother and recently divorced mother for a day hike through the local woods. Bickering between her family members leads her to purposefully lag behind, and when she opts to take a bathroom break, she ends up losing sight of them. Her efforts to find her sibling and parent only serve to get her more lost, and she ends up going deeper and deeper into the wilderness with very limited supplies.

Ingenuity helps her to survive as search and rescue teams are sent out looking for her – not to mention support from an imagined incarnation of Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Tom Gordon – but time is limited and the woods are full of terrifying dangers.

Speaking at Cannes (via the Los Angeles Times), Lynne Ramsay spoke about not taking another eight years before making her next movie, and she already has a couple of other projects lined up to help her keep her promise, including the Alaska-set horror film Polaris starring Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara. My fingers are crossed that taking less time between features could mean good news for The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon… but this is the part of the story where I note a significant problem standing in the way of the project’s progress.

In 2020, it was Village Roadshow Pictures that optioned the rights to the Stephen King novel in discussion here, and that same production company made headlines back in March of this year when it was announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It doesn’t exactly take a business genius to understand that particular circumstance doesn’t bode well for the future of the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon movie, but I’m going to choose to be an optimist anyway. There haven’t been any specific reports regarding the project’s death, and between Lynne Ramsay’s immense talent and the strength of the material, I’m wishing that it eventually finds a new home and ends up being made. There is simply too much potential here for it all to just wither away.

The present status of the adaptation is unclear, but you can be sure that if any updates are provided, you’ll be able to learn about them here on CinemaBlend.

This Summer, Stephen King Fans Can Watch Children Of The Corn At A Special Screening Where The Movie Was Filmed

In my writing about Stephen King here on CinemaBlend, I’ve never been particularly shy about expressing my dislike of director Fritz Kiersch’s Children Of The Corn. Even divorced from the string of IP-exploitative sequels, the 1984 movie makes terrible additions to the source material, is ridiculously boring, and is designated with the legacy of being the first legitimately bad King adaptations. It’s not a movie that I will rewatch without a very specific why… but I would honestly put “screening it where it was originally filmed” under that teeny tiny banner.

On Set Cinema is a program that I’ve highlighted in The King Beat before, as I learned back in January that they were scheduling a 45^th anniversary screening of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining at the Timberline Lodge (the location that was used for the exterior shots of The Overlook Hotel) – but while that’s going down in October, there is fun to be had for Stephen King fans even sooner, as a two-day event is being planned this July in Whiting & Hornick, Iowa to celebrate the history of Children Of The Corn.

Those who dare face He Who Walks Behind The Rows should mark their calendars for July 11, as tickets are still available to join an evening walking tour of Whiting, Iowa (which stood in for the fictional Gatlin, Iowa in the film). A screening of the movie will be hosted immediate after in the local community center. There is also a bus tour that will be taking place the next day on July 12, but tickets are already sold out.

If you live in Iowa, plan to be in the area at the time, or are a die-hard Children Of The Corn fan who wouldn't dare miss an event like this, tickets are available now (it's $30 for standard admission and $25 for Iowa residents). Not including travel expenses, it’s cheaper than picking up a copy of the film on 4K UHD, and it presents a unique cinematic experience. If you’re game to go, you may want to snap up your tickets now before they are all sold out.

That brings us to the end of this week’s edition of The King Beat, but you can be sure that I’ll have a fresh feature waiting for you here on CinemaBlend next Thursday loaded up with news and opinions regarding the work of Stephen King. In the meantime, you can explore the history of King adaptations with my series Adapting Stephen King.