It seems like everytime you turn around Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty (2012), The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)) is petitioning herself to be in one genre film or another. First she wanted to be Black Widow, then Wonder Woman. A few years back she was quoted as saying:
“I would love to do a superhero movie! I would have loved to have played Black Widow. A couple of times I’ve gotten really close. The problem is, if I do a superhero movie, I don’t want to be the girlfriend. I don’t want to be the daughter. I want to wear a fucking cool costume with a scar on my face, with fight scenes. That’s what I’d love.”
But more and more it just seems like she just wants to do something that geeks will watch…maybe she’s a geek groupie. Well ,both she and many geeks agree that Beverly Marsh is the role for her. Variety reports that our girl Jessica is in talks to play the ginger-haired character as an adult in the sequel to the smash horror hit It(2017), which is a more recent adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel of the same name. The film grossed $700 milion worldwide and is the highest grossing horror film of all time.
In the story the kids who tangled with ‘It” return as adults to finish the job. I never got around to writing my review for the latest film but I had a lot of problems with the narrative choices they made. One of these problems was in the portrayal of Beverly Marsh…whom they made way more confident and self assure in the 2017 version. She was so cocksure and badass that she stared down the killer clown and stood up to her father in an extremely violent fashion. This is a well and good for a story that isn’t connected to anything. But in the books, Beverly Marsh the adult hasn’t learned the lessons that this new Beverly seems to have. That Beverly finds herself in an abusive relationship with a sadistic partner. One who followed her back to the gang so intent was he on not letting her go. I can only assume this part of the storyline is going to be completely dropped. Why?
- It doesn’t make any sense that the character we saw would grow into the same person who would allow herself to be in such a relationship. I mean what would be the excuse…a relapse? Seems lame.
- Jessica Chastain with her superhero hangup seems unlikely to be interested in playing anyone meek or worse…battered.
But what the hell do I know. Production for the the sequel starts this summer which is slated for release Sept 6, 2019.
