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Comment RSSThe Thing Prequel Release Date
17.06.10 # Remake # 13 Comments
Universal Pictures has set a release date of April 29th 2011 for the the upcoming prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, also titled The Thing. Here’s the studio’s description of the film, which will only be informative for those unfamiliar with the original.
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.
I’m willing to give The Thing a chance, but I must admit, at the moment my expectations are pretty low. I fear it will be an artless splatterfest, as opposed to the original which could be described as an artFUL splatterfest.
Are you looking forward to The Thing? Also, with the release of Scream 4 also scheduled for April 2011, could that month be a renaissance for Horror cinema, or are you as skeptical about both projects as I am?
Source: Coming Soon
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The Thing prequel and Scream 4 in the same month? The Thing and Scream 1 & 2 make up most of my top 5 favourite horror movies. So I’m really looking forward to this. Will they screw up The Thing prequel/remake? Oh yes. Halloween, and particularly The Fog, had so much updating potential but the finished products turned out to be lazy, unfrightening and brain dead.
Thomas W., have we heard who’s doing the practical fx for The Thing prequel? They are all practical, not cgi, right…? They wouldn’t be that stupid, would they?…
I fear they will screw it up.. the odds aren’t really in their favour. Most things that make the original so awesome aren’t things that are valued by the average movie audience these days. They’ll probably take the “safe way” and ruin it that way..
And a Maxim featured actress playing the scientist lead character, too much of a stretch already
Haven’t heard about the fx but i’m guessing they will most likely take the easy option of CGI.
I’m definitely a huge believer that CGI should be a last resort not the first option. The practical fx from the original have stood the test of time really well, heck even the practical fx from ‘The Thing from Another World’ have stood the test of time really well and that film was made in 1951. The problem is that the use of practical effects takes real creativity and imagination i.e. things that seem to be slightly lacking in Hollywood at this moment in time. Horror is always more effective when you don’t show too much of the monster/killer/alien etc, keep the enemy mysterious and largely unseen for as much of the film as possible. This is an idea which goes all the way back to the classic Val Lewton B-movie ‘Cat People’. I think with the use of CGI there is always a temptation to show everything too quickly.
I’m not skeptical about Scream 4 because that whole is excellent all around.But they don’t choose cgi for this project.Using live actors will make that more impressive.Try Ron Perlman.
Skeptical about the Thing, less so about Scream 4.
Scream 4 has Craven and most of the original cast, but because everyone is older the Horror Rules stuff would look wrong. Scream 4 may look less like an ironic post-modern slasher and more like an unironic old-school slasher/thriller with a more adult twist that re-thinks the entire series.
The Thing. Run-o-the-mill CGI instead of groundbreaking make-up effects, from a mainstream that no longer feels financially brave enough to allow an directors authorship or the freedom to work. I will watch it but I don’t think it will be great.
I am certainly skeptical of both. In fact I’m not really intrested in even there being a Scream 4. As for “The Thing”, I fear that crappy CGI special effects and a weak plot will doom this movie to failure…hopefully for those who have similar thoughts we are all proven wrong.
This has 3D written all over it.
Carpenter’s The Thing has some of the greatest monster FX ever done on film in that era. Its also one of the most under appreciated horror films made. As the prequel gets a modern update, I think Hollywood has other intentions like turning this project into a PG-13 movie with “seen it” CGI FX and 3D visuals to sell tickets.
A prequel is pointless and the ending would be predictable. Let me guess, all the main characters die in a helicopter crash while chasing the dog/thing. I would be happier with a sequel. At the end of the first movie, MacReady has become the thing and then infects Childs when Childs drinks from the same bottle that MacReady was drinking out of but it’s possible that it’s the other way around. The sequel could continue with the bodies being found or it could have nothing to do with the first one and go off in a different direction and set in a different location. If they follow the first movie the bodies of MacReady and Childs could be transport by ship when the crew are infected. This would create an isolated environment and the ship setting would give the movie a claustrophobic paranoid feeling.
Well, there is already a sequel in the shape of a game that was released some years back. Quite good actually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUUmILXecvU
I’d not worry too much about whether the prequel’s gonna turn out just fine or not. You’ll see when the film finally is running in the theatres. Sure, you already know they’ll all die. But still, it’d be interesting to follow through their discovery. Perhaps see when they explore the ship’s interior and all that.
Even though we know that they all die (the last survivors that died in the beginning of J.C’s The Thing). With a really good script and an excellent director, wonders can be made.
The Thing is my all time favorite movie. Minus the claymation at the end of course (lol). Just the thought that they are going to use cgi really makes me puke. Any real fan of the Carpenter movie will feel the same. If this comes out in 3D, that is another mark against it.
Mark my words, this movie will suck.
I’m looking forward to this movie and have done my research. The producers of this movie are going along the same lines as the first.
I myself was worried of this being like most sequels but I have more faith with these guys. They really are taking consideration to the Carpenter version.
My main liking to the Carpenter version is the overall feeling of suspense you get while watching it. The movie itself made you think of what if you were stuck in a camp like that with some “Thing” like that. I just hope they stick with that over the edge feeling.
It would also help if they kept it in the same time era. The old school dark look really really plays a factor.
Sorry for the rant. The Thing is by far my favorite movie and I have faith they wont f*ck it up.
Jerry.. Go f*ck yourself.
If you think you can make a movie go ahead.