Prequel to 'The Thing'

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

And that sucks too, btw I checked the films set to release in 2011 and I think that September is a good month to release the movie, there isn't any big movies set to release around that month.

Hopefully Universal takes notice and moves it to that month.....

 

[Brem]

There are a couple of things that worry me about this film, besides the fact The Thing doesn't need a prequel (really don't want to see what happened before, I liked that mystery).

Do we know what year this film takes place? It's supposed to be a prequel, right? I'd assume the year in the film should be the year the first film either takes place, or some time before. There shouldn't be any modern technology in this at all, otherwise you can't call it a prequel because it just won't fit in with the technology from the first.

Second is I feel everyone should get killed off in the end. There was no indication of a woman at the base, and the way the first film went I can't see anyone really getting away. We know everyone is supposed to have died, and to have a survivor would, for me at least, ruin the first film. I like the idea that they didn't stand a chance, they got wiped out and the creature got away.

I get this feeling this will end up being a quick, typical horror film trying to get its money off "The Thing" and claims that it is a prequel. I'll wait and see, but the way horror has been recently I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

[Solidus]

Eh...there is no evidence that there were no women on that base. Very little was known. So there could easily be women there. We have no idea if others ran to some other base, and some jumped in a helicopter and took off, there is lots of room in that little told of the base to have an interesting story. The mystery of the Thing never came from the Norwegian base it came just from the Thing itself. And the mystery of the creature will stay with us always, I doubt they will reveal too much.

And from the pics and trailers, they are making it set in 1982. I have some worries, but none of those you have mentioned really worry me. I do worry about the modern horror, but let's hope that this is not that.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

I think in one interview, (don't remember which) Eric Christian Olsen said the prequel takes place a few days before MacReady & co.

 

[Valaquen]

Hopefully they capture the 80's feel in regards to technology, clothing etc. I'll keep an eye out for blackberries.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Better they waited.

A spokeswoman told LA Times that the movie was not ready. In its place, Universal Pictures moved up “Fast Five,” from June 10th to the April 29th date.

I'd rather they wait in them perfecting the movie than rushing it and people complaining about how badly it looked later imo.

http://www.latinoreview.com/news/-the-thing-now-has-no-release-date-11715

 

[Cagefighterkip]

not happy they pushed the release back,
anxious to see an hd trailer though. hopefully soon.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Just read this on HitFix:

It's easy to speculate about the reason behind a date change, but in this case, it's as simple as one film being ready and another film not being finished yet. HitFix learned in the last few weeks of plans for upcoming additional photography on the film, and when we contacted Universal for clarification on their plans for the film, producer Marc Abraham was the one who called me to explain.

• Everything he said confirmed what we'd already heard, that the filmmakers have a cut of the movie and that they are now hoping to use this next round of photography to enhance existing sequences or to make crystal clear a few story beats or to add punctuation marks to the film's feeling of dread.

• Abraham spoke about how confident he was in the work by Matthijs van Hijningen Jr., the film's director, and how proud he is of his cast, including Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. He knows how important both the monster moments and the connective character material are to the film working, and they're looking at everything right now to make sure they've got what they need.

• Overall, though, this doesn't sound like the additional work motivated the date change, but rather the date change giving them room now to do whatever they'd like to do to get the film finished just right. Abraham wants this to be a film that is embraced by both the hardcore skeptical Carpenter fans and the audiences that are fresh to the property, that have never seen the original, and is well aware how hard that's going to be to get right.

• At least some of the cast is involved in the additional photography, including Winstead, and there is ongoing effects unit work going on involving the Thing and the creature crews at Amalgamated Dynamics, with certain things still scheduled to be shot. It's expected that the film will still be ready early next year, just as it would have been, and now it's just a matter of finding a date that works for the film, and that gives it a little bit of room to breathe.

http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/motion-...upcoming-additional-photography-for-the-thing

 

[Crockett]

Well maybe it's good that Universal changed the release date since it will get overlooked on a already crowded summer but I don't like that they are doing re-shoots, it usually means they were not happy of what they got on film the first time and adding a few new scenes could cause a unclear direction for the movie(taking the COTT'10 as an recent example).

 

[Carnotaur3]

Well maybe it's good that Universal changed the release date since it will get overlooked on a already crowded summer but I don't like that they are doing re-shoots, it usually means they were not happy of what they got on film the first time and adding a few new scenes could cause a unclear direction for the movie(taking the COTT'10 as an recent example).

Additional photography is different from reshoots.

It really isn't something to worry about. Going back in and fixing problems is what making films are all about.

 

[Crockett]

Well at least they are aware that the film has a problem since the movie has currently no release date. I do hope scenes are crucial to the movie then.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Some people are already saying the re-shoots will bring it down to a PG-13 rating. Yeah...relax....

Anyway, I'm glad they're at least getting the additional time to work on whatever they need to so later on we're not going, "what the hell is this crap?" & bash the film later...

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

The new release date is now going to be Friday, Oct. 14, 2011.

Just in time for next Halloween.

 

[Man in the Suit]

Cool.

 

[Carnotaur3]

The new release date is now going to be Friday, Oct. 14, 2011.

Just in time for next Halloween.

Crap! They need to at least throw us a bone by showing a trailer in the mean time. This is forever away.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Crap! They need to at least throw us a bone by showing a trailer in the mean time. This is forever away.

I wish it'd come out already too, but I have a feeling it won't be released until sometime early next year.

 

[Carnotaur3]

I wish it'd come out already too, but I have a feeling it won't be released until sometime early next year.

Are you saying that date you posted was just your speculation?

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Are you saying that date you posted was just your speculation?

No, the new October release date is already confirmed.

http://***********/UniversalPics/status/7161312803028992

 

[Crockett]

The new release date is now going to be Friday, Oct. 14, 2011.

Just in time for next Halloween.

Excellent, can't wait.

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Alec Gillis spoke about the SFX on 'The Thing'.

Do we ever see the Thing's original form in this film? It was unrevealed in Carpenter's film.

I think what's important is that you never see the true form of this creature. What you see are two life forms that are close. We get to design a couple of alien life forms that are presumably evolved biologically on another planet that happen to be infected by the Thing.

What was the hardest model?

Well, I think probably it's the Edvard, which I think you guys were staring at over there on the other side. It's a little beat up right now. But because it's a human being, that's always difficult. We've done some great human likenesses, but when you're articulating them like this, it becomes that much more difficult. Then when you have an entire torso that has to do weird things, you know, neck stretching and so on, that gets into a very dicey realm. So you have to be very careful, and very exacting. I love the creature stuff, but you use a little more slack there.

One of the iconic moments for a lot of people is the head that starts walking off. Is there gonna be anything like that in this film?

Well, I think that's the Edvard. I think what happens to him is kind of an homage to that. But we're going with the full body. And what's cool is that that transformation is what lead into this "two-face" guy from the Carpenter version. So I hope that the fans appreciate the loving adherence to the plot points in the first movie, and what's set up as the story in the Norwegian camp. You'll get to see why they killed themselves to avoid the Thing. I hope the fans like it.

Is there any chance that this will be PG-13?

[Laughs] I don't think so, I hope not.

It's a lengthy-ish interview, so here's the link to the full thing o)

http://www.fearnet.com/news/interviews/b21079_special_effects_wizard_alec_gillis_on.html

 

[Spider-Man Luvr28]

Anyone read this on the CS homepage yet? It's an interview with director Matthijs van Heijningen:

Shock: So was this a project that you fought for or was this something they came after you to direct?

Matthijs Van Heijningen: I was prepping a movie called "Army of the Dead," produced by Zack Snyder. It was 3 months before shooting and then the crisis hit and it fell apart, and then I was prepping that for a year almost, so I was like in a little void. Then I was in my car and I was like, "Oh God, I have to read all these scripts again." Is there anything like one of my favorite movies that I went to, thinking about "Alien," thinking about "The Thing" and then I called my agent and said, "Whatever happened to The Thing? Did anyone ever do something with it?" And he said, "Yeah, Strike Entertainment is prepping something with ‘The Thing.'" I didn't know if it was a prequel or a sequel. So they got me in contact with them and they had already a script, and then I said, "Hey, well, can I read it?" And they were very enthusiastic about my work. I read it and I liked it, and I said, "Well, I think if you want to do a prequel to JC's movie, it has to be really true to that movie." As an audience you would know who was The Thing, but the basic rule of his movie is that you don't know who's the Thing, I mean, that's the whole paranoia. So we started from scratch, to bring in JC's movie as sort of the design of what our movie should be. Just really go back, you know. I said, "Well, if I can pitch it to the studio, it should be with real Norwegian. Otherwise, as a European, I mean it's ridiculous if it's like Americans pretending to be Norwegians. I'm just gonna pitch it and see, probably they don't like it and it's gonna be washed under the table." But they said, "It's cool, let's do it." Real Norwegians, that sort of thing. So that's how it started.

Shock: Do you have specific memories of your first exposure to "The Thing"?

Van Heijningen: Yeah, that I went to see it at the cinema and it blew me away like, I really... the ending was that dark, which is something that I really liked. I'm really fighting for that same sort of tone.

Shock: What was involved with reverse-engineering all the stuff we saw in that movie? Obviously a lot of things we see you can guess what happened, but you don't really know. Was a lot of that done in the script stage?

Van Heijningen: Well, I think that was the beginning of our approach, "Let's see all those key points in the Norwegian camp. The axe in the door, the two-faced monster. Is there a way for us to explain that and incorporate it in the story about all these people?" So that's how we sort of came up with the story, and of course Universal was fine with Norwegians but we need to have some Americans so that way we sort of constructed it in there.

Shock: How did you bring the Americans into the story?

Van Heijningen: The way we did it was that one of the main characters is a Norwegian guy, and they basically want his help and he's based in NY and he brings his team and his two assistants which are Americans. So that's sort of a logical way to get a little bit of Americans into the story.

Shock: Can you talk about casting? How did you arrive at Joel Edgerton, who not many Americans might know.

Van Heijningen: No, I was just trying to find this believable, hardboiled guy, a Vietnam Vet who just starts a business in Antarctica and doesn't care about people anymore. Maybe he experienced a lot of stuff. So we cast Joel. I read about him, that he was in a play on Broadway, which had rave reviews and he just came in and that's the guy. And for Mary (Elizabeth Winstead), we were trying to find somebody who was between 25 and 30 and believable as a clever person that could be a scientist. So the moment that somebody pretends to be a scientist and you don't believe it, I'll basically step out. So that was what I was looking for.

Shock: Did you have to audition with her or did you see some of her previous work?

Van Heijningen: Yeah, we auditioned and she felt calm and strong and believable and sort of vulnerable in the beginning, and then she has to step up, not because she wants to but because she has to. That's what I like.

Full interview: http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=17347

 

[miisterwilson]

anyone think kurt russell will make a cameo? possible cgi like they did with jeff bridges in tron legacy, maybe a mixture of the new film cut with bits of the old film? i mean edgerton has got to be the pilot from the opening of the thing shooting at the dog thing.

 

[Kingfish]

Kurt is practically retired at this point and there's really no reason for him to come back and cameo in someone ****ing all over his legacy.

 

[Carnotaur3]

Kurt is practically retired at this point and there's really no reason for him to come back and cameo in someone ****ing all over his legacy.

He has three films coming out next year.

 

[steintym]

No need for a cameo. I wouldn't really care, but doesn't seem necessary.