The Thing Returns
Posted on November 22, 2006
The classic science fiction film, The Thing is going to be remade according to Variety.
Strike Entertainment and Universal Pictures will remake John Carpenter's frightener "The Thing." Script will be written by "Battlestar Galactica" exec producer Ronald D. Moore. The 1982 original dealt with a shape-shifting creature from outer space that terrorizes researchers at an Antarctic facility.We're not quite sure why Ronald D. Moore chose this project, but it might have something to do with the fact that he's taken the original Battlestar Galactica and reimagined it in a way that has thrilled critics and fans alike. And that was no easy thing to do. Remember all the "what do you mean Starbuck is a girl?" comments? And he got it really, really right.Strike partners Marc Abraham and Eric Newman will produce and the company will co-finance the remake, to which Universal owned the rights. David Foster, who produced the original film, will exec produce. Carpenter's film continued the storyline of the Howard Hawks-directed "The Thing From Another World." That 1951 film starred James Arness as an alien monster that wiped out workers at an Army radar station. Carpenter's film opened with a team arriving to find that encampment has been wiped out. The alien moved from the body of one team member to another, so it was never quite clear who the villain was.
Both pictures were based on the John W. Campbell Jr. 1938 short story "Who Goes There?" The producers said they consider the new film to be more "a companion piece" to the Carpenter film than a note-for-note remake. Carpenter recently saw remakes done of his films "The Fog" and "Assault on Precinct 13," and Dimension Films has Rob Zombie reviving the Carpenter classic "Halloween" in what Zombie calls a cross between a remake and a prequel.