Mary Elizabeth Winstead Joins 'The Thing' Prequel

It's not a remake - rather a prequel - to The Thing, which itself...was a remake. Sorry if that's confusing. The John Carpenter film from the early 1980s, one of the most underrated sci-fi/horror combos there is (and one of the greatest remakes period) will serve as the foundation for a film that right now we're just calling The Thing. After all, Prequel to The Thing sounds a bit silly. Universal has taken the first steps toward filling out the cast, hiring Joel Edgerton (Kinky Boots) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Live Free or Die Hard and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim) for the prequel, which begins shooting in about a month in Toronto. Heat Vision Blog broke the news and even has a pretty specific synopsis, which we'll boil down for you rather than copy and paste. Winstead is the lead scientist in this go-round, and that's refreshing. She travels to Antarctica - so pretty this time of year - because another team of paleontologists has discovered an alien craft and a frozen body. When stuff goes haywire following an tissue sample extraction (guess what happens then...) her fears for her own safety are magnified because the other scientists only speak Norwegian, so she's even more isolated. Edgerton plays a helicopter pilot who flew her to the base in the first place. Sounds like a pretty tightly spun story, and I genuinely like the idea of having a female in the lead. It's reminiscent of that other classic sci-fi/horror hybrid from that era, a little something called Alien. So, yes, I would say I'm rather encouraged by all of this news. And a prequel is better than a remake in this case, because you can still direct people to see Carpenter's classic without stepping on its toes. I'm still not over the moon that Matthijs Van Heijningen is directing, because I think you could really attract some great name talent for this, but it sounds like a lot of the work is already there on the page.

Comments

[anybody]

The thing is one of the great remakes and standalone sci-fi/horror films (with one of the great scores too). What the title will be is another interesting question... they could go the fast and furious route and just drop 'The'. I'm not sure if I caught this video on here a long time ago but everyone should watch the Zombie Zombie GI JOE remake of the thing. It's super impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT7AH4JyuNs

[Vince]

Yeah, Mary Elizabeth Winstead! *fist pumps*

Sorry, I just really like her.

As long as they don't make this a stupid 3D exposion-ganza, and focus on the themes of isolation and terror, this could be a worthy watch.

[Jessica]

I'm with ya on that Vince! I love Mary so I think this is great for her!

[Get The Big Picture]

Anybody - I believe I featured that YouTube video a couple years ago, right around the time talk about the remake/prequel got going. It's very hip.

Vince - I totally agree. Lo-fi is the way to go here.

[bradster]

the thing is probably the best sci fi horror of all time. they are going to have to have all their talents at the for front to even get remotely close to it.

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