Shooting Begins in March for Prequel to ‘The Thing’
by Britt Hayes
For years there has been discussion of a possible prequel or sequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing. The Thing was itself a remake of the 1951 film, The Thing From Another World, which was in turn based on a novella by John W. Campbell Jr., titled Who Goes There? For a while it seemed no one knew which direction the new film would take. It was said that a sequel would follow MacReady’s brother, coming to the the remote Antarctic station to find out what happened to his brother in the first film. A prequel would follow the Norwegians seen at the beginning of the Carpenter film, chasing the dog.
Well, the plot is official now and the prequel of the remake of the film based on the novella (wrap your head around that) will begin shooting in Toronto in March, with a tentative end-date sometime in June, according to Bloody-Disgusting.
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. will direct from a script by Ronald D. Moore and Eric Heisserer, the latter of which co-penned the upcoming remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Heisserer doesn’t have much work to his credit, and the teaser for Elm Street doesn’t expose much, so it’s difficult to say how I feel about this prequel to The Thing. Ronald D. Moore, on the other hand, has an extensive science fiction background, having written many episodes of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and three episodes of Carnavale, as well as the screenplays for Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact. While I may not like some of the aforementioned projects, this is a man who obviously knows science fiction, and thus, a man that I trust handling something like The Thing.
The plot follows the Norwegian crew seen at the beginning of Carpenter’s film, chasing a dog with guns before their helicopter inexplicably crashes. The dog makes its home in the American camp, and soon transforms into “the thing” – an alien being who can replicate the cell structure of other living things, including humans. Turns out the Norwegians had uncovered the alien remains, frozen in ice and several thousand years old. In this prequel, we’d see the Norwegian story leading up to that opening scene. I imagine their story is very similar to the American story that follows, but I have some problems:
First, the thing becomes a dog, flees the Norwegian camp, and ends up wreaking massive havoc on the American camp by imitating several human members of the team. If this alien’s MO is taking over the most complex (and thus, the most powerful) cellular beings in its vicinity, why does it end up as a dog before fleeing the Norwegian camp? There were other people around. It doesn’t seem likely that an alien who wants to take over the bodies of humans would stick around long enough to make enough trouble to form a movie-length prequel plot, just to turn into a dog and fuck some other outpost up. As it goes with most prequels and sequels, I assume they’ll change Carpenter’s opening scenes to fit with their own plot, instead of coming up with an intelligent explanation as to why this alien chose to be a dog, particularly if (going by the prequel) it left just as much destruction at the Norwegian camp. Prove me wrong, guys.
My second issue with the prequel is that we already know the ending: the Norwegians chase the dog down with guns, then their helicopter crashes and they’re dead. Unless something insane goes on in that helicopter that we somehow didn’t witness, then this ending will be rather tame. Once again, this is where the writers and the director will take liberty with the Carpenter version and change this sequence to benefit their vision. This isn’t akin to expanding or playing down parts in a book. This part of the prequel film is already set in stone in another film, which people have seen. Changing it will undoubtedly alienate a large portion of the audience.
Obviously, this film was intended to be a remake, but in a landscape filled with remakes, re-imaginings, and reboots, it’s easy to see why they chose to do a prequel, especially since the original film is itself a remake. While the MacReady’s brother storyline sounded a bit silly, doing a period piece and making it a sequel would’ve opened the film up to more possibilities. Instead, they chose to do a prequel, putting themselves in a creative lock box. It seems evident that this prequel will most likely mirror Carpenter’s work, which is why the issues I mention above aren’t just suspicions from a zealous film geek: these are solid problems that I hope the filmmaker and his writing team are handling in an intelligent manner.
John Carpenter’s The Thing is my favorite horror film, and as such, I am fiercely protective – sort of like a mentally challenged gorilla who believes the Cabbage Patch Kid you just handed it is its baby, or an obese kid with his stash of Hostess cakes. I will eat your face if you fuck with what I love.
