Will Poulter is apparently set to play Pennywise the evil clown in the It remake.

The We’re The Millers star is joining Cary Fukunaga’s remake of Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel, reported Variety.

Sources said the 22-year-old actor is in talks to play the monster who used his clown disguise to terrify and lure children in the upcoming two-part remake.

Cary, who directed the first series of True Detective, Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre, will write and direct the thriller, which is expected to start shooting in the summer.

Cary Fukunaga
Cary Fukunaga (Richard Shotwell/Invision)

“I’ve been in this project for about five years. I had already read versions of the script but nothing felt right,” he told Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

“Everybody tried to put too much into it, telling it from the perspective of the adult and the child in a two-hour movie. It didn’t fit. So I decided to throw it all away and start from scratch.”

Mark Rylance and Ben Mendelsohn had been linked to the Pennywise role, but the sources claimed Cary was “blown away” by Will’s audition and felt he was the right choice for the part.

Stephen’s original book centres on seven children as they are terrorised by “It” during their summer holiday, and it is thought that the first film would focus on the group as kids, with the second part following them as adults like the novel.

It was adapted into a TV mini-series in 1991 starring Tim Curry as the clown.

Tim Curry (Peter Kramer/AP)
Tim Curry (Peter Kramer/AP)

Will, who made his big-screen debut in 2008 drama Son Of Rambow, is set to show his darker side in revenge thriller The Revenant alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.

He will also star in David Lowery’s film adaptation of Kevin Powers’ war novel The Yellow Birds with Benedict Cumberbatch and Tye Sheridan.