The original “The Thing”, starring absolute bad-ass Kurt Russell, was one of my favorite movies of all time. We had paranoia inducing Antarctic isolation, people teetering on the verge of insanity, big bushy beards and that was before the shape changing, human hunting, dog imitating creature from the frozen flying saucer arrived.
Universal is about to let loose the filming of the prequel to “The Thing”, capturing the horrors experienced by those crazy Norwegians that discovered, or set free, the first Thing. This effort is going for an authentic feel, filming the Norwegians speaking in Norwegian, with English subtitles of course. This is interesting. I’m kind of on the fence.
First a word on the look and feel according to Marc Abraham, producer. (via The L.A. Times)
That’s the story we tell in this film,” says Marc Abraham, who is producing the movie with his Strike Entertainment partner Eric Newman. “We go back to that original Norwegian camp and try to figure out what happened. It’s like a crime scene, with an ax in the door, and the audience gets to be the detective, trying to piece together what horrible things have occurred.
On letting the Norwegians speak for themselves:
In their quest for authenticity — and with an eye toward helping the film play overseas — the cast is populated with actors from Australia, England, Canada and Norway. In fact, a majority of the Norwegian scientists in the film are played by Norwegian actors, who will play their scenes in Norwegian, with English subtitles.
Matthijs Van Heijningen Jr., a commercial director of some note, is getting his first spin at the wheel of a major release. “The Thing” will have a budget of about 38 million, most of that going to special effects with the absence of pricey known actors. If you are going to basically remake a classic, you better not fool around. Fingers crossed. Thanks io9.
The Kurt Russell version of “The Thing” wasn’t the original either. It was a remake of “The Thing from another world” from the 50s.