10 Things You Never Knew About Pennywise
2. He Nearly Met George Romero And Alice Cooper
When Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot miniseries proved a ratings hit (and received three Emmy nominations), ABC were eager to get another Stephen King adaptation and eventually seized on It, whose length suited the TV format. George Romero, who’d directed the King-scripted Creepshow (and would later adapt The Dark Half), was mooted as a possible director.
Caught up in production on Two Evil Eyes, Romero cited prior commitments and left the project, which subsequently went to Tommy Lee Wallace, then fresh off Fright Night Part II. A disciple of John Carpenter, with whom he’d worked on Halloween and The Fog, Wallace was no stranger to the horror genre and made his feature directing debut with Halloween III: Season Of The Witch.
More likely to be apocryphal is the story of the actor who was originally in consideration to play Pennywise. Though no stranger to movies (he has a cameo in Sextette alongside Mae West) or horror (he played Freddy’s dad in Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare), Alice Cooper’s biggest role at that time was as the lead in Monster Dog (1984), an Italian cheapie from the director of Troll 2. If you’ve ever seen it, you’ll be relieved he never played Pennywise.