#it 2010 script

in the book, richie’s fears manifest most commonly as the werewolf and as an eye, reflecting both his perception of himself and the way he feels others see him. the werewolf is richie’s self hatred, his belief that he is, in some way, a monster and therefore must hide his true feelings and nature, even from his closest friends. this is why he does his voices, why he consistently cracks jokes in uncomfortable situations. while richie is naturally funny & outgoing, it’s clearly a crutch for him in an environment he feels very unsafe in. in the 2017 film, richie’s fear is clowns. imo, this is supposed to represent a fear of being a joke & nothing more. 2017 richie seems to feel that his part is to be a clown, he is nothing outside of making his friends laugh, and maybe that’s all he is to them. GREAT. that is compelling tbh. however. book richie insists on being the clown. he’s loud and abrasive and funny on purpose to hide the fact that he’s a monster on the inside. he’s screaming for people to look at him, but only on the surface, because if they see him as a joke they won’t see what he’s hiding underneath. richie is never really able to be emotional or truly honest with his friends (‘but he knew well enough’), and to me that speaks of severe self loathing. he really is putting on as many personas as possible, a huge flashing sign to look at me! but never any further than the laugh. richie’s not scared of clowns or werewolves, or of his parents or guilt or sexuality or prejudice like the other kids. he’s scared of loneliness, but only second to the one thing that he believes would cause the loneliness, which is revealing his true self. what’s interesting about the 2019 film is that it takes this and make the reason for the self loathing richie being gay, but it completely drops the animalistic horror of how richie actually feels about himself. there is a huge paragraph of text in the book where richie describes himself as having a punchable face, and goes into extreme detail into how he imagines bullies feel as they go about destroying his face. he almost revels in it, as if he thinks he deserves it. it's honestly pretty disturbing. but the point i'm making is that there is inherent violence in the way richie feels about himself; the werewolf is violent, the way he talks about himself is violent. the biggest reason richie has for feeling like this is the fact that he can't ever stop talking, how he can't help but goad bullies and talk back and make jokes at the worst times. the inability to control himself seems to me to be a representation for severe mental illness. he simply has no filter, and very little control over his actions. richie’s own worst enemy is his own mind. it’s not until much later into adulthood he starts to learn any kind of mental management (and even then it’s framed in violence). please no hate but this is why i’m not such a huge fan of richie being gay in the 2019 movie. i like book richie because on the surface, there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with him. his fear is literally all in his head, it’s an entirely internal battle. (if we want to read book richie as gay which we absolutely can, i think it would, like the loneliness, come second to the fear of the self. another day in richie’s life is like ‘god i hatemyself i can’t control myself i’m genuinely the worst. and i’m gay. shit’ it’s not a huge deal i don’t think. another brick in the self hate house of tozier if that makes sense). mostly though, i find the werewolf much more compelling than the clown. i think it says a lot when your funnyman feels like a monster, even to his friends.

meanwhile, we also have the fear of the eye. there are a ton of references to richie’s eyes and glasses in the book, and surface level analysis would reveal anxiety surrounding the constant breaking of his glasses, the fear of the shards of glass. he literally states this fear in internal monologue. however, i think it’s also supposed to be the fear he has of people actually looking at him. he’s insecure about his face. massive glasses (the symbol of his return to a childhood state of mind when he returns to derry as an adult). massive front teeth (the kids called him bucky beaver after the derry school mascot). richie thinks that, without even opening his mouth, his face is the kind that begs for violence. is it really any wonder he becomes a radio host? and therein lies another huge issue i had with the 2019 film, which is the billhaderfication of richie tozier. i like bill hader. i think he could have been really really great as richie. but i don’t think richie would be a great bill hader. he’s a radio man. his thing is voices, with telling stories and elaborate setups and answering callins and hosting interviews. he’s not a standup comedian. i think richie probably likes attention, and definitely likes making people laugh, and definitely likes the art of acting, but i don’t think he actually likes people looking at him all the much. his childhood interests are magic (look at the illusion!) and ventriloquism (look at the puppet!) & while i said earlier his entire thing is this giant flashing LOOK AT ME, it’s less about making people Look At him than Look Past him. radio is much better suited to him. people don’t believe he’s just one guy, they can’t believe how well he can mimic and make up characters and keep the bit going, and the best part is that listeners don’t see you. you are literally your Voices and nothing more! idk do we really think the man with a thousand voices is really all that interested in standing up in front of people? i’m digging on it 2019 but 1990 did this too! radio is alive and well you guys know this right! the most popular radio hosts are well known, they’re minor celebrities! locals love them! idk to me. to ME. richie can’t be anything other than the radio host. he loves music. he idolizes rock stars. buddy holly wears glasses guys. it’s so simple. the music. the voices. the fears. of course he’s a radio host. sorry i’m mad i’m calm now what i’m SAYING is i think that richie’s a really complex and interesting character and it makes me sad to see that get wasted! he was meant to be a radio host as much as bill was meant to be a writer, as much as ben was meant to be an architect. their jobs as adults are part of their characterization stephen king didn’t just pick them at random. stand up comedians existed in the 80s, and if richie was a standup comedian king would have wrote him as one, but he didn’t. richie is a radio host, and it makes sense that way. he wants to be his voices, nothing else.

slight detour before we wrap up. when i first started looking into getting original scripts for the it remake, i’ll always remember finding this quote. i can never get the original source back because you can’t google search anything richie tozier and find something worthwhile so you’ll have to trust me i’m sorry this is soo antithetical to the cited quote believer in me but what was SAID about richie being gay in the first drafts was that it was necessary because he had ‘less going on than the other losers.’ think about that. they wanted to give him a better reason to feel the way he does. they wanted him to have more, like the other kids. bev’s abusive father & absent mother & living on the poor side of town. mike’s one of the few black people in derry & his family history of torment. bill’s stutter & his brother & his absent parents. eddie’s asthma (anxiety) & his munchausen mother & dead father. ben’s fat & his father’s dead & his mother is never home & he’s never had friends. stan’s jewish & weird & makes bad jokes only he understands & he’s got this order-oriented mind his peers can’t relate to. i suppose in comparison, richie just looks like a geek and talks too much (even if i’m remembering incorrectly, we can still assume this is why it was added to richie’s character specifically when eddie is the more obvious choice since he’s got that sweet coding and comparisons in the book. but.). we, the screenwriters of hollywood, have to give him something, as if his fears aren’t completely obvious in the text. it’s mental illness guys. it’s literally just that richie’s got complexes over his mental illness. i see a lot of theories that he has adhd or add, which is most likely to me, but in the end it doesn’t matter. this is the 1950s, and richie feels like a freak at war with himself. isn’t that enough? i think if we had all that AND the weary acceptance of the fact that he’s gay but extremely closeted about it (if you know of the 2010 draft then you can maybe see what i mean & ill tag it below if you wanna go back on my blog and find my script post) because he can’t stand being known then i think i would welcome adding this to his character, especially because you can argue for it based on the book. however. instead of adding to his character, the addition of being gay works to reduce some of the nuance. it’s becomes the thing to point to, the reason, rather than one of the many reasons richie struggles with himself and his emotions.

does anyone know where i can find a copy of the scrapped 2010 script? 

DAVE KAJGANICH’s 2010 SCRIPT (pdf)

DAVE KAJGANICH’s 2010 SCRIPT REWRITE (pdf)

CHASE PALMER AND CARY FUKUNAGA’s 2014 SCRIPT (from the intenet movie script database)

CHASE PALMER AND CARY FUKUNAGA’s 2015 REWRITE (pdf)

me: yeah!

it 2010: gets rid of mike and stan also butchers eddie and makes him call audra a ‘broad’