HOME TRAILERS RELEASE DATES PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS BOB $TENCIL NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

Universal's The Thing Prequel Hits Theaters in April Next Year

by Alex Billington
June 15, 2010

It's back! Mark this date down in your calendars for next year. The "big news" of the day is that The Thing will be returning to theaters in the form of a prequel directed by Dutch filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Universal is currently this shooting up in Toronto and has just set a very early April 29th, 2011 release date next year (via ComingSoon). Either they're making a bold move by launching this one week before the summer (when Marvel's Thor hits), or they just think it'll play well all summer. Either way, that seems like a quick launch for a movie that is just shooting now, but I guess the sooner we get to see it, the better, right?

The Thing, as it's titled, is being directed by first-time feature filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and written by Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street) & Ronald D. Moore (of "Battlestar Galactica" fame). The film is set in Antarctica and takes place as a prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing of 1982. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. Stay tuned for a trailer next.

Explore tags: Date Updates, Hype, Movie News

Linkfx

This film better have practical animatronics. No bgrade cgi. Bring the original special effects guy back to do it, Rob Bottin's badassness is unparalled in cinema, maybe matched only by Rick baker.
Samantha

Hell yeah!
http://movies.iconocritic.com peloquin

I don't know how they're gonna top the head spider, but this is definitely one prequel that needed to be done as I always had questions about why the shape shifter chose the dog and not a human as it's final disguise. With that question answered along with the history of the space jockey I will die a happy man.
Said

i wonder what John Carpenter thinks about this?
Jimmy Love

I dont know I think all those question answering films are ruining the old ones just look at star wars, I just miss having the mystery in films. it sounds niftty I guess to see what happened to the sweeds but now that I think about it yeah lets watch them all die. I like it. (waits for deletion)
The Hornet King

I think this has a lot of potential. This, to me, is a great example of taking an existing story and expanding upon it in a way that will both satiate the appetite of the fans of the original film, and bring in money. Many sequels simply look for any excuse to expand a story that has no business being expanded. They are constantly grasping at anything they can build an additional movie upon, regardless of its importance as a character/plot point/contrivance/device, what have you. This has a story ready-made Its built right into it, and it can be completely organic in its continuation of the 1982 original. (I will be quite interested to see what they do with the technology, whether they cheat and update it or keep it at the early-80s level of sophistication). And they aren't going crazy. This has an estimated 35 million dollar budget. Not exactly swinging for the fences. But they've assembled a lot of talent here. I'm particularly interested in what Joel Edgerton is capable of, as I think he's really a guy who could be fast on the rise. I like Mary Elizabeth Winstead too, in the few projects I've seen her in. If they can keep this simple, with smart, practical effects and a tight little story, I think they can really do this well. Alright, rant over. Apologies
Uriah

This is one of my all time fovorite horror films so I have very high expectations. If it Does well, perhaps we'll also get a film that follows the original. Bottin should be brought back - would love to see what he could do now - he was just a kid when the original was made.
Brandon

This movie is my all time favorite horror film , this has the potential to do all kinds of things with it i really hope they dont mess it up it would really ruin the future (if it has any) to the film , not saying it does but , it in a old school dark way it could very well have a potential to run 3-4 films of dark horror through the continents of this "thing" visiting and assimilating everything . i just dont think it will hold up to the original but heres hoping .
deadpool 72

the original is an 80s classic,mary elizabeth winstead is so fucking hot,can't fucking wait till april & finally hope the film ends with some norweigens chasing a husky across the artic.
zubzwank

At least bring Bottin in as a consultant or something. His creations in JC's TT had weight and physicality that cgi could never match.
blasphemer

"Kate must join the pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time.... is it just me or doesnt this sound a great deal like the plot to the other film????
aaron

this kind of sounds to me like it's affiliated with the guy that is shot at the beginning of carpenters film. i guess it will tell the story of what happened to that crew.
Benjamin

Carpenter's the thing is one of my all time favorite movies, I'm a bit skeptical about this prequel. I just hope it doesn't have CGI effects. Can you imagine a plastic looking CGI thing!? No good.
Christopher

I've read the book several times and I dont know how they will work a female into to plot. If you have never read the book, read it. Covers a lot of info that the movie could not cover, like why Fuchs was killed by the thing. He did not kill himself, the thing did. If you have never read the short story "who goes there" read that also. Thats on the internet so its easy to read. The book can be found at Allibris.com. Its great reseach for Aprils big day.
Finger

Hey? How come this is an american paleontologist "Kate Lloyd" and an american pilot "Carter"? Isn't it supposed to be a Norwegian scientific team? Oh yes... I forgot... only american can save the world...
Finger

Again... Been watching the original movie. The pilot that is shot at the beginning speaks only norwegian. That's why no one knows why he wanted to shoot the dog! So, the pilot is not an american! Can't Hollywood writers check their stuff correctly?
Tom

Ive read an early draft of the script by Ronald D. Moore and .... its sucks, if Universal are pinning any big budget hopes on it they better have a damn good re write! its a remake not a prequel they have basically set the story around the same big scenes (dog autopsy, people tied up in reck room!), they even have characters uttering the same lines throughout! It could have been a great opportunity to have a different take on event and how the other team dealt with it, (basically like Carpenter did with the original thing). what did the first thing alien look like how did it come about, that all gets glossed over and we end up with the same intro story, with the same autopsy (wtf!) its just another generic action film with oblivious dialogue worked around some set pieces. in a story where we already know the out come it really need to be more interesting instead of spending most of it working out what's going on in the same way we saw in the fist film, but they have attractive lead actress (because that's what people like to see these days and a guy who looks a bit like a kurt russel because he was great in the first one. such a waste!

Anonymous

I totally agree Tom. Don't like the ALIEN egg/pod rip off either.

Timothy Beaulieu

As a build-up to the original movie, I have high hopes for this. It's sci-fi and as a casual writer of science fiction and fantasy, I'll go see it and enjoy it because it IS sci-fi. I don't mind that the movie is going to be subtitled in certain parts because of the Norwegians speaking their native tongue; that lends authenticity. It's not going to be just another Americanized shoot-'em-up feature. What I'd like to see is more information on the alien itself; it's biology (like a plausible explanation as to how it can change its morphology and physiological characteristics to mimic other lifeforms; scientifically speaking, it stands to reason that it would have to be based on the same levo-amino acid base that Terran life evolved from, otherwise it couldn't really assimilate us without risk to itself, also changing forms from one to another takes energy, so its metabolism would have to be extremely efficient), history, the species that it may have assimilated in the past, that kind of thing. Obviously, this takes place in the early '80s, so knowledge of that kind of stuff and the methods to retrieve that information would by default be more limited... unless the base personnel stumble across some kind of database on the ship (hint, hint!). As far as CGI in special effects today, I don't have any problem with them. Don't kid yourself. People like those prop shots now when watching those old movies for simply nostalgia's sake, nothing more. Computer graphics look MUCH more natural now in a shot than most practical-effect shots do and if they'd had access to that kind of tech back then, you would've seen lots more CGI in the original. One of the stop-motion animations of the first movie dealing with the alien was cut out because Carpenter could see the stuttering of the movements from frame to frame and that killed it for him. The main theme for the original short story by John Campbell and for Carpenter's version of The Thing was 'Do you really know who you can trust?' If they keep true to that, I think they'll do just fine.
Anonymous

The release date is now October.
Bestactor

Do you know a name for the MOVIE? When in October? THANKS