As with other planned new adaptations of Stephen King novels, such as The Dark Tower and The Stand, a film based on his classic ‘It’ has had a rather on-again, off-again history. Now though it’s back on again, but it’s a different incarnation from the two-part one being planned in 2015 with Cary Fukunaga (True Detective) directing and Will Poulter as the evil Pennywise the Clown.

However, they are keeping with a young Pennywise, as THR reports that Bill Skarsgard – brother of Alexander and star of Hemlock Grove – is attached to play the role. There’s also been a change of directors, with ‘Mama’ helmer Andy Muschietti now set to helm.

King’s novel follows a group of kids called the Losers Club that encounter a creature called It, which preys on children and whose favourite form is that of a sadistic clown called Pennywise (famously played by Tim Curry in a 1990 two-part TV version). When the creature resurfaces years later, the now-grown kids are called upon to regroup again, this time as adults, even though they have no memory of the first battle.

The plan is still to make it as two movies, with the first showing what happened to the Losers Club as kids, with the second showing their interactions with Pennywise as grown-ups.