The Thing (Prequel)

JP Liz V1

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has landed a role in Universal's The Thing prequel.
Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who played Mr Eko on ABC's Lost, has been cast in the role of Derek.
The 42-year-old joins Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Jonathan Lloyd Walker in the film, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen.
Production has already begun in Canada.

Another reboot :rolleyes:

madrab

Nooooo!

The kurt russel version is a masterpiece, dont touch it!!!! Its the best movie john carpenter ever made

Kess73

I thought that this was neither a remake nor a reboot, but a prequel that was to end with the

dog (Alien) escaping from the Norwegian research station and being chased by the helicopter to the American Research station

, as seen at the start of the 1982 film.

krudler

Well The Thing is a remake itself but its a classic, should be left alone.

geoffraffe

I hate remakes and I found that a lot of my energy was going into hating them. Now I just dodge them like the plague, pretend they don't exist and the world seems like a much better place .

Kess73

It's not a remake or a reboot though.

It is what happened in the

Norwegian Research centre

before the Kurt Russell film started.


To be honest I don't expect much from it, and would have preferred if John Carpenter had made a follow up* which started with

MacReady and Childs staring at each other in the snow.

*Yes I know the Xbox game was meant to be a sequel to the 1982 film, but I would have preferred a John Carpernter film with the remaining actors.

pixelburp

Hey, figured it was better to resurrect an old thread (rather than make a new one) based on the prequel being made of The Thing, cos there's a trailer out!

Don't have a youtube of it yet, so for now it's embedded on Aintitcool:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50381

My first thoughts are ... hurm. Followed by a "meh". It looks like it might be heavier on the action, which is not a good thing. To be honest, it sounds a bit chauvinistic but the inclusion of a pretty female lead is a bit stupid. They're clearly not going to kill her off, so I predict plotline gymnastics to let her escape, but kill off the rest of the crew in the manner we find them in the events of the 80s movie.

expectationlost

pixelburp wrote: »

Hey, figured it was better to resurrect an old thread (rather than make a new one) based on the prequel being made of The Thing, cos there's a trailer out!

Don't have a youtube of it yet, so for now it's embedded on Aintitcool:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50381

My first thoughts are ... hurm. Followed by a "meh". It looks like it might be heavier on the action, which is not a good thing. To be honest, it sounds a bit chauvinistic but the inclusion of a pretty female lead is a bit stupid. They're clearly not going to kill her off, so I predict plotline gymnastics to let her escape, but kill off the rest of the crew in the manner we find them in the events of the 80s movie.

doesn't it seem that the character Winstead is playing has already seen The Thing

Kinski

You know what bothers me about the Carpenter one?

Why did that guy who was inside at the start feel the need to shoot the Norwegian lad in the head? Okay, he was running around shooting stuff, but at that stage he'd actually gone past Russell and the others, he clearly wasn't trying to harm them he was just trying to shoot the dog. But still he killed him. And despite this, they just take the dog in, after having seen this Norwegian chasing it in a helicopter, trying to shoot it and blow it up with grenades. Now, they thought he had just gone mad, but still, you would think, just to be on the safe side, that they might kill the dog. He might have had a good reason for trying to kill it. It could have a disease, it could have savaged a load of people, they don't know - is it such a stretch that when you're stuck in this isolated Arctic base you might think "Hmm, if anything does go wrong we're kind of stuck here, let's destroy the dog just in case."

Actually that's one of the many things that bother me about this movie.

Gilda Fortune

best sci fi film ever made

Jako8

I love the Carpenter's version and the trailer seems to look very much like it. A similar atmosphere.

I'm hoping that this can, at very least, be above average.

pixelburp

Kinski wrote: »

You know what bothers me about the Carpenter one? [...] Actually that's one of the many things that bother me about this movie.

True, although did you know that

The Norwegians are actually speaking in their own tongue, and it makes sense too. They're saying something like "get away, get away, it's not a reall dog - it's a monster! So if one of the yanks spoke Norwegian, it could have been a shorter movie

krudler

Ther Norweigans are the real heroes of the movie :pac:

krudler

pixelburp wrote: »

Hey, figured it was better to resurrect an old thread (rather than make a new one) based on the prequel being made of The Thing, cos there's a trailer out!

Don't have a youtube of it yet, so for now it's embedded on Aintitcool:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/50381

My first thoughts are ... hurm. Followed by a "meh". It looks like it might be heavier on the action, which is not a good thing. To be honest, it sounds a bit chauvinistic but the inclusion of a pretty female lead is a bit stupid. They're clearly not going to kill her off, so I predict plotline gymnastics to let her escape, but kill off the rest of the crew in the manner we find them in the events of the 80s movie.

They might kill her considering theres no female character in the original, its kinda stupid calling a prequel to The Thing, The Thing though

indough

Kinski wrote: »

You know what bothers me about the Carpenter one?

Why did that guy who was inside at the start feel the need to shoot the Norwegian lad in the head? Okay, he was running around shooting stuff, but at that stage he'd actually gone past Russell and the others, he clearly wasn't trying to harm them he was just trying to shoot the dog. But still he killed him. And despite this, they just take the dog in, after having seen this Norwegian chasing it in a helicopter, trying to shoot it and blow it up with grenades. Now, they thought he had just gone mad, but still, you would think, just to be on the safe side, that they might kill the dog. He might have had a good reason for trying to kill it. It could have a disease, it could have savaged a load of people, they don't know - is it such a stretch that when you're stuck in this isolated Arctic base you might think "Hmm, if anything does go wrong we're kind of stuck here, let's destroy the dog just in case."

Actually that's one of the many things that bother me about this movie.

i dont really see those as completely valid criticisms to be honest. in a real life situation you would be far more likely to assume

they had just gone mad due to isolation than to think the dog was a shapeshifting alien parasite that would either infect or kill your entire crew.

also,

they had already just shot one of the americans - which was accidental of course but they had no way of knowing that.

Kinski

pixelburp wrote: »

True, although did you know that

The Norwegians are actually speaking in their own tongue, and it makes sense too. They're saying something like "get away, get away, it's not a reall dog - it's a monster! So if one of the yanks spoke Norwegian, it could have been a shorter movie

haha, yeah I did hear that...the film must've been totally ruined for people who spoke Norwegian.

indough wrote: »

i dont really see those as completely valid criticisms to be honest. in a real life situation you would be far more likely to assume

they had just gone mad due to isolation than to think the dog was a shapeshifting alien parasite that would either infect or kill your entire crew.

My point was more that

they might assume it had rabies or something. That combined with Norwegian's madness might have pushed him to take such extreme action.

also,

they had already just shot one of the americans - which was accidental of course but they had no way of knowing that.

Oh yeah, you're right, had forgotten about that.

Tipsy McSwagger

No Kurt no Deal

Otis Driftwood

From the producers of Dawn of the Dead.

GTFO.:rolleyes:

krudler

Otis Driftwood wrote: »

From the producers of Dawn of the Dead.

GTFO.:rolleyes:

Snyder's DOTD is one of the few half decent horror remakes though

pixelburp

krudler wrote: »

They might kill her considering theres no female character in the original, its kinda stupid calling a prequel to The Thing, The Thing though

I dunno - we know how it's going to end, but I suspect someone's going to make a noble sacrifice so that she can escape by chopper / plane. Calling it right now. This may also be because I don't want to think of the lovely Ms. Winstead getting the ick at the hands of The Thing.

My real concern would be that given we know how it's going to end, the makers are going to pad things out with needless set-pieces (such as that ice collapse we see in the trailer).

krudler

I'd imagine it'll end with what happens at the beginning of the original, so you definitely know the fate of at least two characters

Otis Driftwood

krudler wrote: »

Snyder's DOTD is one of the few half decent horror remakes though

I personally hate,hate,hate that movie.

Saw it in the cinema and hated it.

Rented it on dvd and hated it.

Watched it one night on tv and turned it off half way through as I was on the verge of having an aneurysm.

/off topic.

From looking at the trailer it seems to be a splicing of a prequel with a remake.

Like in the trailer there is a bit when they are all in a room and the guy with a beard is on the ground spazzing out like the spider scene in Carpenters version.

indough

well even going by the original there's no way to no for sure that nobody from the norwegian base escaped (at least temporarily to die from exposure or whatever). unless i missed something

uncleoswald

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KFrrgkRmSI

expectationlost wrote: »

doesn't it seem that the character Winstead is playing has already seen The Thing

Just what I was thinking! She seems to jump to the conclusion of a shape shifting alien remarkably quickly.

It doesn't look like a prequel at all to me, looks more like another remake without a single original idea of its own, dogs going mad? Check. Blow torches? Check. Even the inclusion of the original score just reminds you of how bad it's going to compare to the original (well original remake...)

krudler wrote: »

Snyder's DOTD is one of the few half decent horror remakes though

Faint praise indeed, apart form an entertaining opening credits it was as dumb and pointless as any other recent horror remake.

Skerries

i was expecting the Alien Queen to show herself in that last scene
The original remake was just brilliant stuff when Carpenter was on top form but after watching The Ward he has lost his magic
and thank you for not making me go to aicn, fúcking hate that site

Mickeroo

So there's a woman playing Snake Plisken and the ginger lad from Hardy Bucks is in it? No thanks!!

Skerries

i hope you were taking the piss with the hardy bucks comment because its this guy
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0647638/

Mickeroo

Skerries wrote: »

i hope you were taking the piss with the hardy bucks comment because its this guy
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0647638/

I hope you were taking the piss by suggesting you actually didn't think i was taking the piss :pac:

Otis Driftwood

Skerries wrote: »

The original remake was just brilliant stuff when Carpenter was on top form but after watching The Ward he has lost his magic
and thank you for not making me go to aicn, fúcking hate that site

Have you seen Cigarette Burns from the Masters of Horror series?

I know it was pre The Ward but it still shows that Carpenter can do some frankly brilliant things.

indough

cigarette burns was pretty good but everything he directed (apart from that) since in the mouth of madness was fairly bad. i havent seen the ward yet though so i cant comment on it

Otis Driftwood

Village of the Damned,while certainly no classic is fairly watchable.

Ghosts of Mars was pants.

Escape from LA was so so,decent for what it was like.

Vampires is just brilliant.

Cigarette Burns and Pro Life are the best and one of the best MOH entries respectively.

Havnt seen The Ward yet.

Thats only one that he has directed since ITMOM that I thought was total crap so not too bad.

Duggy747

Looks a film that hides it's lack of ideas with nods towards Carpenter's film.

It just seems way too much like the 1st film right down to what seems like Winstead reading off Kurt's old script.

voxpop

Seems very similar alright - wonder if any body parts will sprout legs

You can still buy the The Thing on VHS from amazon for the original grainy feel :pac:

Tipsy McSwagger

Having a female lead character makes it look like just another run of the mill ****ty horror film. I bet she runs and falls over a lot. The original benefits from an all male cast and it's one of the many reasons it's such a masterpiece. Unless she somehow turns into an Ellen Ripley type character then this will be a poor film indeed.

Tipsy McSwagger

voxpop wrote: »

Seems very similar alright - wonder if any body parts will sprout legs

You can still buy the The Thing on VHS from amazon for the original grainy feel :pac:

The only way too watch The Thing is on Blu Ray;)

JP Liz V1

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1OpwEu7luk

Necronomicon

Are we sure about its prequel status? Looked more like a remake from the trailer.

krudler

Necronomicon wrote: »

Are we sure about its prequel status? Looked more like a remake from the trailer.

Its definitely a prequel, its set 3 days before the original and about the Norwegian team who first discover the creature

blodvyn

I watched the thing about a year ago. UNREAL! For something that's nearly 30 years old it just blows everything that's made these days out of the water.

I don't remember tension like it in a movie before ,the only ting that comes close tension wise is 'the mist' / 'rec:'

Obviously 'the thing' is a far superior movie.

I don't know how a prequel would hold up, but I'd defenetly go and see it

indough

Otis Driftwood wrote: »

Village of the Damned,while certainly no classic is fairly watchable.

Ghosts of Mars was pants.

Escape from LA was so so,decent for what it was like.

Vampires is just brilliant.

Cigarette Burns and Pro Life are the best and one of the best MOH entries respectively.

Havnt seen The Ward yet.

Thats only one that he has directed since ITMOM that I thought was total crap so not too bad.

i cant say that i will ever agree to be honest. vampires and escape from la were both muck. i couldnt even finish vampires it was that bad. escape from la was basically a parody of a film that never took itself seriously in the first place. not even the presence of greats such as campbell and buscemi could save it, in my view

pro life was rubbish compared to cigarette burns as well, again despite having a great actor in it. it pains me to admit this as i am a massive fan of his earlier work, and i even like his less popular stuff from the period, such as prince of darkness for example. i really wish he would get back some of his magic but to be honest i dont see it happening. this makes me sad

Mr. Denton

Well it's already got two things going in its favour

1) Mary Elizabeth Winstead

2) Norways 1980 Eurovision song contest entry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3_USxKQ34&t=1m15s . So bad even Father Ted wouldn't touch it.

Galvasean

Doesn't look half bad...

SlipperyPeople

i'm kinda looking forward to seeing this tbh

Galvasean

Otis Driftwood wrote: »

Vampires is just brilliant.

Glad I'm not the only one

pixelburp

Galvasean wrote: »

Doesn't look half bad...

i dunno, the more I watch it & think about the movie, the more I think this is going to be this year's "Predators". IE, so in love with the original that it can't tell a good or interesting story, nor can help itself slavishly nodding to the past like a fanboy, eager to please.

Mr Freeze

Loved the 1982 flick, hope this is good too.

I hope its not like "Predators", a massive let down.

Sad Professor

Good trailer, but I have a very hard time believing this is a prequel. Everything about it screams "remake".

Mickeroo

Sad Professor wrote: »

Good trailer, but I have a very hard time believing this is a prequel. Everything about it screams "remake".

Going by the trailer I just assumed it was a remake, I even thought all the characters were re-hashes of the ones from Carpenter's version apart from the female lead. Just because they say it's not a remake doesn't mean it's not a remake imho.

Goldstein

Yes, it certainly appears to be threading the thin line between respectful tribute and imitation.

I hope that's the last we see of CGI falling through a crevasse in a tracked vehicle type scenes, it doesn't need it.

I'm not a fan of unseen things pulling people quickly to their doom in an unsatisfying blur - it's a little too unseen, convieniently unseen if you know what I'm saying. I don't feel like I watched that happen, I feel it was shown to me that way on purpose to avoid having to show me what did it, breaks the spell in a small way and it's an overused easy way out in horror/monster type movies.

Looks like the female is playing the role Ellen Page had in Inception of explaining for the sake of the audience everything that's going on via some unsubtle hanging lanterns writing wise, which may come off as forced leaps of reasoning to progress the plot.

It's too early to be dismissive but hope dwindling on this one I'm afraid. The good is copied, the new looks somewhat devoid of imagination, overly telegraphed and it is screaming lazy paint-by-numbers horror for a nostalgic North American/English speaking audience.

That's another thing - I keep wishing it was in Norweigan too, would add some much needed immersion factor.

Tusky

The Thing is one of my favorite movies. The trailer for this actually doesnt look half bad, but what annoys me is that they are trying to flog it as sequel when its clearly a remake with some bits changed. Whole scenes look to have been replicated. Make a sequel/prequel or do a remake - dont do a bit of both.

Galvasean

Looks like a prequel from a continuity perspective, but certain scenes (eg: the dog chewing through the fencing) seem too much like those in the original. Nods are good, but copy n' pasting is not.