HBO's crime drama True Detective and Stephen King's terrifying clown novel, It, have one key this in common this year: Cary Fukunaga.

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The director, who helmed the entire first season of True Detective and even scored the show's only major Emmy win for the gig, is now taking on the latest film adaptation for the popular Stephen King novel.

"Cary likes to develop things for a while and we've been with this [film] for about three or four years," said producer Dan Lin to Vulture on Friday. "So we're super excited that he stayed with it. You guys are gonna be really excited."

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Production for the horror flick is scheduled to begin this summer, with prep starting as early as March. This means that Fukunaga will be hard at work making It just as True Detective premieres its second season on HBO.

Back in 1990 ABC adapted It into a miniseries starring Tim Curry and John Ritter, but Fukunaga's film will be the story's first real big-screen experience.

"The book is so epic that we couldn't tell it all in one movie and service the characters with enough depth," noted Lin, revealing that the project will be decided into two films. The first will follow a group of young friends as they face off with Pennywise the clown, while the second will follow those same friends as adults forced to revisit their shared, painful past.

According to Lin, Fukunaga will only be directing the first installment, though he's in talks to co-write the second part. This seems in keeping with Fukunaga's general pace. For True Detective he only stayed one season, though he is listed as one of the producers for the second.

"The most important thing is that Stephen King gave us his blessing," noted Lin. "We didn't want to make this unless he felt it was the right way to go, and when we sent him the script, the response that Cary got back was, 'Go with God, please! This version the studio should make.' So that was really gratifying."

It is likely looking at a 2016 release date.

True Detective will return on HBO with its second season mid-2015.

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True detective, It