The future of New Line Cinema’s two-movie remake of Stephen King’s ITis in serious doubt following the departure of director Cary Fukunaga from the project weeks before filming was due to commence.

According to reports over the weekend, creative differences, and disputes over the budget – particularly in the light of the underwhelming performance of the Poltergeist remake over the important Memorial Day weekend in the US – led to the parting of the ways.

However, as Stephen King noted on Twitter, “The remake of IT may be dead–or undead–but we’ll always have Tim Curry. He’s still floating down in the sewers of Derry.”