THE ART OF PREQUELS

The Thing

Point of View
Fans of this stalwart sci-fi classic will delight in this magnificent prequel that illuminates the frightening origins of a gruesome creature from hell that feeds off unknown terror. The impact of this well crafted 'creature feature' lies in the horrific premise of an unseen killer that lurks in our midst and only reveals its deadly malevolence when identified. Make sure to watch the end titles as it cleverly links the events to John Carpenter's classic and guarantees that you will re-watch it once you get home.  What contributes to the success of this hellish nightmare, is that it is not set in suburbia or in familiar surroundings, but places its helpless victims in the icy landscape of Antarctica.  Sensitive viewers must be warned that it is a bloody and violent onslaught on the senses. Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen brilliantly brings Eric Heisserer's cunning script to life; what is interesting is how Heisserer uses familiar situations of Carpenter's classic and turns it inside out.   Van Heijningen fully explores the power of the genre and exposes the fragile nature of human beings that triggers a monstrous survival instinct that is equally brutal and unleashes the savage within. Reviewed by Daniel Dercksen. Rating 5/5

The Story
Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty.  It is also home to an isolated outpost known as thule station.  there, a crew of international scientists has unearthed a remarkable discovery.  but elation quickly turns to terrifying paranoia as a group of researchers encounters something inhuman that has the ability to turn itself into an exact replica of any living being.
Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World's Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has left behind the safety of her sterile laboratory and traveled to this desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. 
Joining a norwegian research team led by Edvard Wolner (Fallen Angels' Trond Espen Seim) that has stumbled across a creature buried in the ice, Kate--along with fellow explorers discovers an organism that seems to have died in the ice eons ago.  When a simple experiment near this outpost frees the thing from its frozen prison, Kate must join the pilot, (Warrior's Joel Edgerton) to keep it from killing everyone and anything it encounters.  and in this vast, intense land, a parasite suddenly mimics anything it touches…pitting human against human as it fights to survive and flourish.
The film is a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name, and is directed by Matthijs van Heijningen in his feature-film debut.  The thriller is written by Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and based on the classic story of terror "who goes there?" by John W. Campbell Jr.  Visit the website: www.thethingmovie.net

The Author
John W. Campbell Jr was editor of Astounding Science Fiction and is credited with helping shape the golden age of science fiction.  Campbell attended MIT and, by the age of 21, was a well-known pulp writer.  He then attended Duke University, where he graduated with a BS in physics.
His story "Who Goes There?" was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1938 and was about a group of Antarctic researchers who discover a crashed alien ship.  His story was made into the feature film The Thing From Another World, in 1951, and John Carpenter's The Thing, in 1982.
In 1996, Campbell was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.  The John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science-Fiction Novel and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer were named in his honor.

Screenwriter
Eric Heisserer recently wrote the feature film Final Destination 5, for New Line Cinema and Practical Pictures, having previously worked
with New Line as a writer on 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street, produced by Platinum Dunes.
Heisserer currently has several projects in development, including Inhuman, with producer Taka Ichise, and The Occupants, at Heydey Films.  He recently sold a series pilot to ABC based on the Danish film Headhunter, which is set in the world of corporate espionage.  His previous pilot projects include Utopia, for CBS, and Midnighters for The WB.

The Director
Matthijs van Heijningen is the son of a prominent Dutch movie producer and spent his teenage years taking photographs and working on his father's films in every capacity, from building sets and lighting scenes to editing stories.  When he emerged as a filmmaker and storyteller in his own right, no one was the least bit surprised.  From the short films he made while in law school to some of the most ambitious, high-profile projects in global advertising, his unique chemistry of ironic comedy, solid narrative and a beautiful cinematic aesthetic sets his work apart.
Since 1999, van Heijningen has become one of the most acclaimed and decorated commercial directors in Europe, winning more than his share of coveted Cannes Lions and countless other festival honors and awards.  His work for clients like Toyota, Peugeot, Renault, Stella Artois, Pepsi, Heineken and Visa, not to mention his recent stunner "The Closet" for Canal+, have all reinforced van Heijningen's passion for bringing multidimensional, winningly human characters to the short-form context. 
In 2006, van Heijningen moved to Los Angeles, where his talents quickly caught the attention of Zack Snyder, another filmmaker with roots in the commercial world. Soon after, van Heijningen signed on to direct Army of the Dead, an action/horror/ adventure set in a zombie-infested Las Vegas, based on an original story by Snyder.  Van Heijningen guided the project through development and preproduction, though Army of the Dead was eventually put on hold.
Moving forward from this false start, van Heijningen seized the opportunity to connect with Strike Entertainment's Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, the producers behind Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead.  In the midst of developing a version of The Thing for Universal Pictures, Strike found the perfect creative partner in van Heijningen, who brings a fresh and inspired attitude to the project, as well as a deep knowledge and appreciation of the 1982 film.

Reverse Engineering: Production Begins
The history of The Thing dates back to 1938, when noted science-fiction author John W. Campbell Jr. released his pulp novella "Who Goes There?," a terrifying story that explores what happens at a research station in Antarctica when a crew of scientists unearths an alien vessel.  Inspired by Campbell's novella, Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby crafted the 1951 film The Thing From Another World.  That thriller expanded upon Campbell's exploration of group paranoia and demonstrated the story's parallels with the Cold War period.
Thirty years later, John Carpenter returned to Campbell's book for inspiration when he wrote and directed 1982's The Thing.  With its groundbreaking practical effects, the film, which was written by Bill Lancaster and produced by David Foster and Lawrence Turman, became a classic thriller that has inspired a generation of fans and filmmakers alike. 
In 2004, producers Marc Abraham and Eric Newman had just released Universal's blockbuster Dawn of the Dead when studio executives approached the partners about shepherding another project.  Newman recalls that early conversation: "Nobody's got a better, richer pedigree in the monster/horror zone than Universal.  They said, 'Here's our entire library.  What do you think about The Thing?'  Our first reaction to it was that you're not going to improve upon it; you're not going to do a better version of The Thing.  It's not a movie that could be rebooted or remade."
After careful consideration, Abraham and Newman found themselves drawn to the story's themes of trust and paranoia.  Abraham explains: "This story has always been--in every incarnation, whether it was Carpenter's film or back to the novella--about paranoia."  He believes those themes to be "consistently relevant because they're about trusting--or distrusting--people that you're stuck in a very dire situation with."
Newman adds: "The first thing we said about this version of the movie is that its theme had to be about who you can trust and who you can't.  More than ever, we live in a time where if there is an enemy, it's very likely that the enemy's not someone you would suspect.  The bad guys don't wear uniforms anymore."

Who Are You? Casting The Thing allowed the filmmakers to balance the supernatural elements of the creature tale with the more traditional aspects of storytelling.  Newman explains: "When you make a horror film, you're trying to sell a reality that doesn't exist.  You have an even greater obligation to sell the reality in the areas you can control.  The performance, the characterizations and what situations are not supernatural have to be even more grounded.  The cast is where you start."
They began by making Columbia University paleontologist Dr. Kate Lloyd the central character of the story.  Newman shares: "The original Carpenter movie is a very male experience.  Historically, whether it's Rosemary's Baby or Alien or The Exorcist, there is often a feminine perspective in these films.  Given that it's 1982, it's a man's world.  Kate is the heroine, and she provides a great way into the this tale."  Read more

What Goes There? Creatures and Special Effects When John Carpenter's The Thing was released in 1982, the special effects designed by effects pioneer Rob Bottin broke new ground for the genre.  His use of practical effects and prosthetics set a standard that is still considered a benchmark in the field.  With the advances in technology since, the filmmakers had an important choice to make: whether to use CG exclusively or a combination of CG and practical effects. Read more

The End of the World:Designing The Thing Production designer Sean Haworth was faced with a daunting creative challenge as he began to tackle The Thing: he had to design the look of the film by extrapolating from Carpenter's earlier version.  Haworth explains: "It was a lot of detective work, poring over every little moment.  There were so many clues left behind, and you had to pick the ones that were important and that made sense." Read more

Once they decided to tackle the project, the production partners needed to find a way into the story and add to what had been so cleverly done before.  Explains Newman: "The only way that this project appealed to us was if it fit in the Carpenter universe in a way that was respectful but creatively consistent.  What always interested me was the fate of the Norwegians who are obliquely referenced in the original movie."
In determining the direction of this companion piece, Abraham credits his fellow producer's encyclopedic knowledge of the source material. "Eric's a true aficionado of these movies and has enormous respect for John Carpenter," he says.  "He's got a photographic memory, so he knew every single beat in the movie.  Once we decided that we didn't want to remake The Thing, he came up with the idea of telling the story about what happened before we get to the dog that opens the Carpenter film."
David Foster, who produced Carpenter's version, joined Newman and Abraham on the project as an executive producer.  He makes it clear that "this is a stand-alone picture.  This is not The Thing that John Carpenter made, which I loved, and John will tell you it was the best film he ever made.  This ends where that picture began.  It's pretty important that fans of The Thing know that they're not going to see the same thing over and over again."
When plans for the prequel of John Carpenter's The Thing became public, Eric Heisserer launched a campaign to write the screenplay.  As a longtime admirer of the property, he wanted to ensure that the film would work for him.  Comments the screenwriter: "Knowing it was going to get made, I felt I had to jump on the grenade, as it were.  I knew that if I could deliver something that satisfies the fan in me, hopefully, it will satisfy other fans elsewhere."
Heisserer went to the meeting armed with ideas of what the movie should be.  He wanted his version to look and feel much like an extension of Carpenter's vision.  Heisserer recalls: "I focused entirely on character and story.  I focused on continuity, and I looked for surprises.  I looked for opportunities that I could bring to this that we hadn't seen before.  I tried my best to do something unexpected in a world where we already know the outcome."
Ultimately, Heisserer tapped into the story's central themes of suspicion and distrust.  He says, "I felt The Thing has always been a paranoid thriller and a case study on trust, and what you can give and what you can take."  Finding Heisserer to be a like-minded collaborator, Abraham and Newman welcomed him to the project.
The producers then approached director Matthijs van Heijningen to helm the project and found that their instincts about his suitability were spot-on.  Newman describes their first meeting: "We just started talking about it and never stopped.  It was like a date that never ended; next thing you knew, you were married."   
A veteran commercial director from Holland, van Heijningen makes his feature-film debut with The Thing.  Abraham admits that he was sold by van Heijningen's skills at crafting fascinating tales.  "This guy is a storyteller," Abraham commends.  "So you combine that with a good visual sense.  Also in his commercial work, you see he's very passionate about character and authenticity.  He was clever about what he wanted to do and how he envisioned this.  He was respectful of the original; he knew it cold.  I think his time has come to make a feature film, and this is a good one for him."
"I adored the original movie; it's one of my favorites," van Heijningen states.  "I jumped into this project as I was carried away with the idea.  Sometimes I would wake up thinking, 'Oh my God, what am I doing?'  Of course, I felt that pressure.  I've tried to make the biggest tribute to the original movie as I can."
Heisserer, van Heijningen and the producers began a period of intense collaboration during preproduction.  Newman explains: "We looked at the set of the ruined Norwegian camp in the Carpenter movie.  We thought, 'How do we, working backwards, arrive at this?  They found a freakish, burned carcass of some half man/half monster, a fire axe in the wall and a torched compound…'"
Comparing the process to an autopsy, Heisserer extrapolates: "We have relics from Carpenter's film that inform us of what had to have happened at the Norwegian camp.  But that was just forensic evidence.  We had to figure out what happened and make sure that we counted for that in our story."  This painstaking attention to detail proved to be quite productive.  Says the screenwriter: "Because we approached it with that level of scrutiny, it kept us all on our top game.  It was excruciating, but it was also incredibly rewarding."
To ensure accuracy, the filmmakers spent a great deal of time examining each frame of Carpenter's film and making sure that, where appropriate, touch points and artifacts were referenced.  "As fans of the movie, it was a world that we were very comfortable in," shares Newman.  "We could talk about it all day long, and we did.  It was impossible for us to make this movie without acknowledging in a very real way that the Carpenter movie exists.  That was the design from day one."
The team's attention to detail was so exacting that the filmmakers even brought in Italian composer Ennio Morricone's classic original score (known as "Humanity [Part II]") from the 1982 film to complement the work of this film's composer, Marco Beltrami.  Says Abraham: "There's something incredibly haunting about that score.  It almost bleeds tension and paranoia…and we knew we had to honor it."

The art of prequels

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