January 30, 2009 
source: bloodydisgusting.com
Last week, Bloody Disgusting reported a rumour regarding a prequel to John Carpenter‘s The Thing, with a script written by Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore.
The rumour has since been confirmed, with television commercial director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr attached to direct.
The project will be produced by Universal Pictures and Zach Snyder‘s Strike Entertainment. Heijningen is also attached to direct Army of the Dead, a Strike Entertainment produced zombie flick.
Before everyone gets up in a huff about remaking a classic horror film from the eighties, just remember: The Thing we know and love was itself a remake of Howard Hawks‘ The Thing from Another World (1951). This prequel, much like the previous two films, will also be based on John W. Campbell Jr’s short story “Who Goes There”.
The prequel will focus on the Norwegian camp that digs out The Thing prior to it taking on the Americans. Remember the rogue helicopter chasing the dog in the opening? I suppose that will be the ending. Nice!
One final tidbit that I’m not so impressed by: the lead character in the Norwegian camp will be the brother of R.J Macready (played by Kurt Russell in Carpenter’s 1982 film). Not sure how this happy coincidence worked out, and why two brothers would not be in the same camp.
Regardless, I am completely psyched to see more from the elusive Thing. Battlestar Galactica is almost entirely about people living with horrible secrets and hidden identities, so I look forward to Moore bringing some Cylon-infused mystery to the project.
Quickflix 
A pity imdb still doesn't give more information on this project.It would be very interesting indeed to have this movie as a sort of stand-alone. After all, the Thing from 1982 is almost perfect in its genre, but why not a closer look to how the alien originally looked like and took over almost all of the Norwegian crew there? Would be nice if Kurt Russell could play in this one again. It will, even with CGI of today, be an enormous challenge to equal the 1982 version. Suspense is not easy to make. I will definitely watch it, though.