Fukunaga repeatedly clashed with the studio and did not want to compromise his artistic vision in the wake of budget cuts that were recently demanded by New Line, which greenlit the first film at $30 million. The situation came to a head over Memorial Day weekend, leading to Fukunaga’s abrupt exit from the ambitious project.
“It” was originally set up at Warner Bros. before moving to New Line in recent weeks, which was one reason behind the unfortunate split. Shooting locations were another issue at the heart of the departure, with Fukunaga expressing a strong desire to film in New York, which is more expensive than other locales. Another source indicated that New Line was getting cold feet about the project in the wake of the less-than-stellar opening of “Poltergeist,” which featured a clown in its marketing materials.
As the start of production loomed in mid-June, Fukunaga’s recent drafts were coming in over-budget, and New Line has had success with genre movies when it has maintained a hard financial line. The budget conflict over “It” had been brewing for weeks, as Fukunaga discovered when he initially tried to cast Ben Mendelsohn as the titular villain.
While many assumed Mendelsohn was forced to turn down “It” due to his pending involvement in “Star Wars: Rogue One,” an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that the Australian actor could’ve starred in both movies — “It” in June and “Rogue One” in September — but New Line wanted Mendelsohn to take a sizable pay cut, prompting him to pass on the project.