The Thing Prequel Writer and Director Named
Steve Barton
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You knew it was inevitable as talk has been steadily circulating for the past few months about Universal’s prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter masterpiece The Thing. Well, a director and writer have officially been named.
Variety has just reported that Universal has brought aboard “Battlestar Galactica” executive producer Ron Moore to write the script and commercial director Matthijs Van Heijningen, Jr. (a hopefully crazy Swede) to direct the re-imagining.
From the Variety article:
“[The] new project borrows heavily from the John W. Campbell, Jr., short story ‘Who Goes There’, the basis of the Carpenter film and Howard Hawks’ 1951 original The Thing From Another World.
It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp. Strike Entertainment’s Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing. David Foster will be exec producer.
Van Heijningen has shot blurbs for brands including Toyota, Pepsi, Heineken, Bud Light and Visa. He is also developing Army of the Dead at Warner Bros. with producer Zack Snyder, who also crossed from commercials to features by directing the Strike-produced Dawn of the Dead remake.
Ok, I dig on the Ron Moore bit, but the jury is still out on Van Heijningen. I would have rather seen a more prominent director take the reigns, but hopefully this guy will surprise us. I can hope, right? Right? Keep your head down and your fingers crossed.
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