THE THING (2010) - PREVIEW

The Thing (2010)

Starring: TBA
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
U.S. Opening Date: 2010

THEY SAY

“Prequel” to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic starring Kurt Russell about a vicious shape-shifting alien monster.

In the original you will recall that an American base in the Antarctic is infiltrated by said creature in the shape of a dog, which later kills base members off one by one. This movie will tell what happened at the nearby Norwegian camp that dug out the alien from the ice in the first place and got brutally killed off for their efforts.

Matthijs van Heijningen, who is currently attached to direct Army of the Dead about a father trying to protect his daughter in an L.A. overrun by zombies (is this a non-fiction movie?) for Zack Snyder's Strike Entertainment, is set to direct the rumored prequel. Snyder incidentally directed 300, the Dawn of the Dead remake and the upcoming Watchmen. (As if you didn’t already know that.)

One news report states that Heijningen wants the hero of the piece to be the brother of the character played by Kurt Russell in the original movie. (No, we don’t know how he is going to fit in the overall scheme of, um, things either.)

The film will probably be released sometime in 2010 even though Strike Entertainment or Universal has made no official announcements as yet.
 

WE SAY

‘Eighties nostalgia runs amuck! First the news of a Tron sequel set to debut 28 years after the release of the original and now this! What’s next? We’re holding out for a sequel to Howard the Duck here to be honest!

The interesting thing about all this is that even although both Tron and The Thing are remembered fondly today by ageing thirtysomethingers (and some fortysomethingers as well), both were major box offices disappointments for their studios upon their initial release. The Thing for starters got its butt whupped by, um, E.T. at the box office. Prissy movie critics also derided the movie for its violence and gore. (Leonard Maltin, bless his wussy soul, gave it a mere one-and-a-half star in his guide, calling it “repulsive”.) Today we know better: The Thing is a genre classic and it should come as no surprise that fortysomethinger scriptwriter Ronald D. Moore wants to give it the same treatment he gave Battlestar Galactica with the new series.

As fans of the original Carpenter flick, we aren’t averse to any of this, but must ask: wouldn't a prequel like this be rather pointless? After all, if you have seen the original film then you will know that everybody at the Norwegian camp died, and what’s the point of seeing a movie if you know how it’s all going to end. Why, it’d be a bit like those Star Wars prequels . . .