Earlier this year, director Cary Fukunaga dropped out of New Line’s long-in-development remake of Stephen King’s It, with most reports placing the blame on either budget issues or Fukunaga getting carried away by a clown monster. Now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fukunaga has explained why he decided to leave It—and you may be surprised to discover that it has nothing to do with him being carried away by a clown monster. As EW cleanly puts it, “the reason for the split…can be easily boiled down to disagreement.” Fukunaga says he and New Line “just wanted to make different movies,” which certainly seems to fit the rumors about budget fights and his supposed disapproval of the movie’s hip, young Pennywise. He also compared making a movie to being in a relationship, saying that, “you can try to make the other person who you want them to be, but it’s impossible really to change.”
Fukunaga—who directed the good season of True Detective—has already been replaced on It by Mama director Andy Muschietti. His next film, Beasts Of No Nation, will be in theaters and on Netflix on October 16.