2010-01-05

 

Prequel to John Carpenter's "The Thing"

Zooks! There's a prequel to John Carpenter's "The Thing" in the works, reportedly set in the Norwegian camp were everyone's favorite polymorphing practical effect hung out before getting all up in Kurt Russel's area.

The Thing prequel is being directed by an unknown commercial director (which is standard these days, just like the Friday and Chainsaw reboots), and the first draft of the screenplay was penned by Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore.

People are outraged.

It cracks me up when someone hears about a project like this and rants about remakes. I even came across one gentleman who said he wished that instead of prequels, remakes, sequels and reboots, Hollywood would make original movies.

Dude, John Carpenter's "The Thing" *was* a remake. If he got his wish, one of the greatest horror movies of all time would never have been made.

This is why they have to hide genies in lamps.

Granted, it's probably going to suck. Something tells me "Tremors 4: The Legend Begins" is going to wind up being the better movie. But why take a stand against remakes using The Thing as your poster child? The Thing is a remake of Howard Hawks' "The Thing From Another World" (1951), which in turn was adapted from the John W. Campbell Jr. novella, "Who Goes There?" Needless to say, this is one of the worst movies I can think of to get all miffed about not having an original idea.

It's impossible for me to mention The Thing without linking to my good buddy Ridley's hilarious sketch, seen below.








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Link to this Entry posted by Zeus Poplar @ 10:26 AM
Comments:
What I'd like to see are some remakes of some really bad, flawed movies. Like splashy big-budget versions of Prince of Space or Pumaman or The Mole People. What's the point of remaking a movie (like, say, Back to the Future) that did everything right the first time around? It's the crappy movies they ought to be going back to and correcting with better special effects and more coherent stories and stuff like that.
# posted by Blogger Blake : January 9, 2010 7:09 PM
 
Hey, it could happen.

The Island is just a big budget, Michael Bay remake of Clonus: The Parts Horror. :D
# posted by Blogger Zeus Poplar : January 9, 2010 7:12 PM
 
You could say that the adaptation by John Carpenter is a remake of the movie "The Thing From Another World", but when you look closer, it is more based after the book "who goes there". The original movie "The Thing From Another World" was loosely based on the book, creating it's own take on the monster and the situation. Carpenter was a big fan of the original movie, hence he made his version.

Geesh, where was i going with this? Ahh, yeah....
His adaptation ment something to him and was a milestone in special effects. *grabs barfbag*
I fear, this planned prequel thing will be a summer blockbuster, that has crappy 3D effects, wich won't look nearly as good as anything in carpenters movie.
# posted by Blogger Die Zecke : January 9, 2010 9:20 PM
 
The closest thing to this I can think of was when my friend was talking about the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He said that they added a scene into the end of the movie that he thought was, "so stupid."

He was, of course, referring to the scene in which we see the four kids other than Charlie leave the factory - which was not in the, "original" movie, (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) but was in the real "original" - the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!
# posted by Blogger Broderick : January 26, 2010 12:59 PM
 
@Die Zecke: Yeah, I'd say it's a case of Carpenter liking the movie so much, he wanted to put his own spin on it by using a lot more stuff from the book. But since the movie's logos are exactly the same, I'd still call it a remake of the movie rather than a total reboot that ignores the original.

@Broderick: Yeah, I totally agree. That's what came to mind when I read Zecke's comment, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory had more scenes from the book.

On the topic of people being outraged about recent adaptations actually being more faithful than the original, I refer you to The Cure for Fanboy Rage ran I wrote a while back. :D
# posted by Blogger Zeus Poplar : January 26, 2010 1:31 PM
 
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