The remake of one of the most popular horror movies of all time, John Carpenter’s The Thing, is moving forward, and it now has officially cast its two lead star in Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton.
Winstead will be playing a “Ph.D. candidate” who joins the Norwegian team after they discover an alien craft frozen solid in the ice. Edgerton will be playing a mercenary helicopter pilot, which would be the Kurt Russell role of the remake. The duo will eventually join up when a strange creature breaks free and starts killing people.
The movie is directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen, a long-time producer making his directorial debut. The screenplay is where some strong excitement can be discovered; it was written by Battlestar Galactica and Caprica god Ronald D. Moore, as well as Eric Heisserer, who wrote the A Nightmare on Elm Street remake script.
Winstead has been around for a while, appearing in movies like Grindhouse feature Death Proof, Live Free or Die Hard, and the upcoming Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Edgerton isn’t as recognizable, but he’s been around if you know where to look. He was in both Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith as Owen Lars, and he was also in King Arthur and Smokin’ Aces.
We all know everything is getting remade these days. It has even gotten so ridiculous that studios are basically ordering instant-remakes like The Incredible Hulk and redoing mega-franchises like Spider-Man. Of all of these remakes, one that has really rubbed movie fans in the wrong way is the one involving The Thing. This was a remake in its own right, sprouting out of both the 1951 film The Thing From Another World and Who Goes There?, a 1938 short story. But the reason this one is particularly disheartening is simple: The Thing is just as good today as it was in ‘82!
At times, The Thing remake sounded like it could actually be a prequel. As you’ll recall, the 1982 film begins with a Norwegian research team going a little insane for no explainable reason. This project was supposedly going to tell their story, but with the casting of Edgerton in the Kurt Russell role, it would once again sound like a remake to I.
[Source: THR]
Simply because Hollywood execs decided to use stereotypical protagonists doesn’t automatically the new movie as a re-make.
Besides, in the case of The Thing, how could you possibly write the prequel any differently to set it apart from Carpenter’s version? Alien monster crash-lands, gets frozen, gets thawed, and starts killing ASAP. What? Benevolent unfrozen alien willing to share in the secrets of the universe with mankind thaws out and watches the Twilight movies and decides that it would just be better to end it all for everyone’s sake?
Since when was the second Star Wars prequel called “The Clone Wars”? For shame Geeks of Doom! 8D
I actually don’t mind this being a remake. I loved the original, I loved the Kurt Russell version. I would have preferred a prequel explaining what happened to the Norwegian research team or a sequel showing what happened next but a remake will do, just so long as they do justice to the films that preceeded it.