John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of my favorite Sci-Fi horror movies. Period. Every year, I watch it the the night of the first snowfall, as that is a key component of what makes the claustrophobic story work so well. For those not aware, The Thing tells the story of a remote Antarctic science station that faces down a shape-shifting creature from the stars. A perfect study in paranoia, the film is an amazing twist on the classic Ten Little Indians formula. I’m going to piss off some old-school fans with this, but this remake of Howard Hawks original The Thing from Another World (1951) smokes the original.

In 2002, Vivendi Universal released a video game based on The Thing that served as a sequel. It told such a compelling story that Carpenter himself said that if he were to film a follow-up, he’d base it off the game. It sold well enough to be considered a moderate success, but there was no real solid talk of any kind of return to the frosty world of the film until 2007.

Early in that year, rumors came out of the Sci-Fi channel of a 4-hour mini-series sequel that had the full endorsement of Carpenter. Since then, the project has been backburnered and has disappeared from just about everybody’s radar. But the other news was both interesting and worrisome: A Remake was in the works.

Now, Carpenter’s classic films are no strangers to remakes: Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, and Halloween have all seen remakes in the last few years with varying levels of suck (with opinions being decidedly split on Rob Zombie’s Halloween). So with that in mind, I was nervous to hear about a remake, even when I heard the scripting duties were in the capable hands of  Battlestar reinventor, Ronald D. Moore. But it just got a whole lot more interesting.

A couple of days ago, Latino Review reported that the remake was actually going to be a prequel, saying:

It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp. Strike Entertainment’s Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing. David Foster will be exec producer.

Van Heijningen has shot blurbs for brands including Toyota, Pepsi, Heineken, Bud Light and Visa. He is also developing “Army of the Dead” at Warner Bros. with producer Zack Snyder, who also crossed from commercials to features by directing the Strike-produced “Dawn of the Dead” remake.

Now, the Dawn of the Dead remake was serviceable and non-offensive to fans of the original, but empty. But the guy knows how to make a movie, so coupling this with the presence of RDM, I’m officially excited. Which means this: Universal, don’t screw this up.

Source: Latino Review