Thawing 'The Thing': Prequel Reportedly on the Way

Several weeks back, we crowned John Carpenter's The Thing the best remake of all time. We didn't get a whole lot of objection to that selection in our Top Five list , and the whole process reminded me of how good that movie actually is. A lot of people don't even know it as a remake, although the original, The Thing from Another World, was probably a little ahead of its time, keeping it from gaining a huge reputation. This week, news of a Thing prequel has made it to Bloody Disgusting, with a workable rough outline of the film:

"In the screenplay by Ronald D. Moore, the prequel takes place from the Norwegian camps point of view. An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and members of the team that investigate. The team soon realize that an alien life-form with the ability to take over bodies is on the loose and they don't know who may already have been taken over."

That might sound too much like The Thing to stand apart as a prequel, but certain elements have to remain fairly close or else you get that Exorcist prequel...and nobody wants that. Unfortunately, that's all the info we have; there's no director attached or production dates scheduled, but I'd be curious to see what the film does on its own and how it sets up a film nearly 30 years old when it's released.

Comments

[Wilhelm Kerth]

Fools they would be not offering John Carpenter full control over this movie! They made an error once in underestimating The Thing (1982) because of their own stupid release schedule which was together with E.T..
But they should have learned that The Thing has got its position in the top cult horror movies. Look at the success on home video and DVD after the theatrical release. A pity that se-/prequels are mostly not produced, directed, written, etc. by their creators or the people who originally made these cult movies.