John Carpenter’s “The Thing” was a gruesome work of Sci-Fi/Horror art. Think Ridley Scott’s “Alien” but with ice, isolation, paranoia and a nasty shapeshifting beastie with big teeth. It was wonderful. “The Thing” had a great cast too with Kurt Russell leading the lot in his cool way to their eventual doom.
A sequel has been in the works for some time and filming is about to get underway directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen based on a script from Eric Heisserer. I say sequel but what’s really planned here is a story set before the events of the first film, detailing the chaos and mayhem that ensued at the Norwegian camp where the alien spaceship was first dug up out of the Antarctic ice.
Spoiler TV (via /Film) has a pretty good breakdown of the lead characters. Here’s the skinny.
[KATE LLOYD] In her late 20s to early 30s, pretty, bright-eyed, intelligent, she’s a graduate of Columbia and a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life). On the recommendation of her friend Adam Goodman, Kate is tapped for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by Dr. Sander Halvorson to join his research team in Antarctica, where an extraordinary discovery has been made. Upon arrival, Kate soon finds herself at odds with Halvorson about how best to proceed with the discovery — an alien spaceship with a mysterious and sinister frozen THING found nearby — specifically whether to transfer the specimen undisturbed to a more appropriate facility for analysis, or, per Halvorson’s wishes, to drill into the specimen’s ice encasement for a definitive tissue sample.
[DR. SANDER HALVORSON] In his late 30s to early 50s, austere, scholarly and imperious, he’s a microbiologist from NYU who leads a science research team to Antarctica to help his old friend Edvard interpret and analyze an extraordinary discovery made beneath the ice. Sander, a brilliant scientist and a master of self-promotion, knows that his involvement in such an historic discovery will bring him fame and fortune. Blinded by ambition, he refuses to abandon the “project” even as the bodies pile up around him.
[SAM CARTER] In his early 30s, rugged, handsome, blue-collar, he’s a helicopter pilot with a private charter service that transports personnel and supplies from McMurdo Station to remote research sites across Antarctica. Carter is a mercenary. He flies when he wants, where he wants, and he flies for one reason: money. But his resourcefulness, experience and get-it-done mentality make him indispensable.
/Film feels even more “Alien” connections in this story and I agree. How could that be a bad thing? There’s plenty of room to fill out the details in the original story. Were the aliens in the spaceship shapeshifters or where they infected with the thing like the giants were in the “Alien” story? In the beginning of “The Thing” a Norwegian helicopter crashes while it looked like it was hunting a big fluffy dog that turned out to be Mr. Nasty. Although the Americans found no live Norwegians back at their base there’s still the possibility that someone got out alive. No casting news yet. News as it arrives.
