The paranoia about shape shifting was already done. Doing it again with better FX doesn't seem that attractive.
The Thing already covered the whole "bunch of dudes in Antarctica get infiltrated by a shape-shifting alien, their camp burns down and they all die horribly... or do they?" The Norwegians all die, as well. What's the fucking point of watching them do it realtime? It was much creepier seeing The Thing cast working through the wreckage, trying to figure out WTF happened. I'd rather not see what happened on the alien ship, either. Watching proper non-humanoid looking aliens or humans as aliens ala Star Trek fight a shape shifter, then crash on Earth would be stupid. The only thing that makes sense (to me) is a direct sequel like the video game where the military investigates the loss of contact with the outpost, shit hits the fan and we go from there. MacReady's brother or Norwegians or whatever is fucking dumb.
That would make no sense, business-wise. If you look at top-grossing movies every year, most of them are sequels and remakes. Hollywood is just giving people what they want.
Whatever they do, I hope they resist the urge to use too much CGI. Something about CGI effects just feels less scary. I wish I could put my finger on it but models and animatronics just feel scarier even if they sometimes look a bit cheesier.
This is such a bad bad idea. I agree on the idea of the follow up investigation much like the Video Game did. Its weird, the IMDB page seems to have some very non Norwegien names for its cast. Are we sure this isn't a re-boot rather than a prequel? Vons
Was going to mention the video game which did a rather decent sequel-type story. It's no Resident Evil (video game) but in that same vein of survival-horror genre.
Re: The Thing prequel - date The studio describes the thriller as follows: Spoiler: Plot Spoilers ? Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman. In the thriller The Thing, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=67054
On the one hand it sort of spoils the suspense when you know only two (rather clumsy) Norwegian guys are going to make to the end but on the other hand, it'll be interesting to see how that one guy gets pinned to the door by a shovel...
Well, we assume that everyone dies at the end, but I suppose some people could escape from the Norwegian base. Not that I expect that to happen.
It is always possible some people do escape. The American base we saw wouldn't know there were other survivors who got away which opens up a sequel to The Thing that you know they'll do if this is a success. Afterall, the only survivors we knew of were speaking Norwegian and may not have known there were others or had a chance to alert others.
I would much rather have a sequel than prequel. Though I guess I should be glad that it is not a remake. Could you imagine the awesome creature effects from the original film being replaced with CGI?
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is the only good news I've heard about this thing so far, but can her hotness overcome the fact that prequels suck?
It is a remake disguised as a prequel. And we don't have to imagine these creature effects done in CGI, that's what we'll get whether we like it or not.
3 photos from set visit A Visit to the Set of 'The Thing' Prequel: Part 1 http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/21897 Director Matthijs van Heijningen On Set Interview THE THING http://www.collider.com/2010/10/04/director-matthijs-van-heijningen-on-set-interview-the-thing/
Much rather see a sequal where global warming uncovers the ship once more and McCready makes his way back to the antarctic to confront the second pilot