This fall’s upcoming Stephen King adaptation, Andrés Muschietti’s It, looks like it could win the award for creepiest movie of the year. Every trailer is more frightening than the last, and nothing beats the toothy, sewer-dwelling shapeshifter Pennywise the clown, played by Bill Skarsgard, son of Stellan, brother of Alexander, star of Allegiant and Hemlock Grove. But Bill wasn’t the only actor Muschietti and his producing partner Barbara Muschietti had in mind for the role.

“We auditioned literally hundreds of potential Bob Grays or Pennywises and it was an amazing process,” the producer explained during an It set visit earlier this year. “We got to audition people that don’t audition anymore and a huge gamut of talent; women, younger age, older age, we really went through the spectrum of actors.”

When one of the journalists present asked, jokingly, if Hollywood’s chameleon Tilda Swinton ever came up in the casting process, Muschietti surprised everyone there by saying yes, in fact, they had considered her.

“She wasn’t available,” she said. “No, no I swear to god. She was not. We had a slot to shoot the movie and she wasn’t available so she didn’t even audition. But of course, we all thought about it.”

So what was it about Skarsgard that was so special? Muschietti explained that what they loved about his audition was how close to the book it was. It has already been adapted into a somewhat controversial miniseries enjoyed more by casual fans than by readers of the book, the most divisive aspect being Tim Curry’s gruff-voiced portrayal of the sinister clown. Skarsgard shied away from that interpretation.

“For us, the Pennywise is the Pennywise in the book which is quite different,” Muschietti said. “I think Bill went for that, and he did an amazing, amazing performance and we gave him several tests. Again, because he’s a shape shifter, we wanted to make sure that he could play in different grades, right? And he did. He’s amazing. And what’s even more amazing is that he kept the character very unpredictable, and that’s what scares us the most, when you don’t know what way he’s going to go.”

We may already have two trailers for Andy Muschietti’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s It, but looks like audiences seeing Annabelle: Creation next week should expect a brand new extensive look at the film. (UPDATE – which we can now fully confirm, as the ‘exclusive content’ has been sent to North American cinemas by Deluxe Digital)

New Line/Warner Bros.’ It came on tracking in a very strong way with predictions that are akin to a summer blockbuster. However, taking into context the fall marketplace and the time of year, analysts are simmering them to on the low end $50M, and on the high end $60M.