‘The Thing’ Prequel Gets A Cast

Update: My original post is incorrect: according to sources, the new version of The Thing will actually be a prequel set in the Norwegian camp seen in Carpenter’s film. This makes things complicated for several reasons. First of all, I don’t know if they plan on having Winstead and Co. speak in Norwegian accents throughout the film, and I’m fairly certain that no females were seen in the footage of the Norwegian crew.

Also, why make it a prequel? We know the fate of the Norwegians: it didn’t end well for them. At all. If you want to capture the same thrill of the original film, make a remake or sequel, not a prequel. Have we learned nothing in the past ten years? My original post follows.

We live in a world in which a film as dark and wonderful and complex as John Carpenter’s The Thing is being remade. Of course, one must realize that Carpenter’s film was itself a remake, and that we’ll be seeing all new characters and (hopefully) situations, but still: the resplendent carnage of The Thing, which was essentially a parable of the then-new AIDS virus, will never be matched.

Still, The Thing remake will begin shooting next month in Toronto, helmed by commercial director Matthijs Van Hejningen, from a script by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) and Eric Heisserer (the Nightmare on Elm Street remake).

The first two bits of casting news have arrived as well: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who you’ll probably know best as Lucy McClane from Live Free or Die Hard or the cheerleader chick who got dumped in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, will be playing Kate Lloyd, a “pretty, bright-eyed, intelligent graduate of Columbia and a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life). On the recommendation of her friend Adam Goodman, Kate is tapped for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by Dr. Sander Halvorson to join his research team in Antarctica, where an extraordinary discovery has been made.”

“Extraordinary” in this context means vile and deadly as all get-out. You may remember that there were no females in John Carpenter’s cast — this will hopefully push the remake in a new direction. Also added to the cast is Joel Edgerton, who played young Uncle Owen in the Star Wars prequels.

He’ll be playing Sam Carter, “a helicopter pilot with a private charter service that transports personnel and supplies from McMurdo Station to remote research sites across Antarctica. Carter is a mercenary. He flies when he wants, where he wants, and he flies for one reason: money. But his resourcefulness, experience and get-it-done mentality make him indispensable.” Sounds a bit like Kurt Russell’s MacReady to me …

Source: /Film

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Author Bio: John Cooper goes to college. John Cooper loves writing pithy things about movies. Follow him on Twitter.