"The Thing" Prequel Begins Shooting in March

By our guest blogger, Matt Jussim

Universal's planned prequel to John Carpenter's cult classic film "The Thing" will begin pre-production in March, reports Production Weekly.

According to Production Weekly: Universal's prequel to John Carpenter's classic thriller "The Thing," is due to begin filming March and continue until June in Toronto.

The story will deal with the initial dredging up out of the ice of the shape-shifting alien life form by researchers at a Norwegian Antarctic facility. The original film, starring Kurt Russell, dealt with the shape shifter as it infiltrated an Antarctic research team, taking the appearance of the researchers that it killed--and thus causing paranoia within the group.

Matthijs Van Hejningen helms the new film from a script by Ronald D. Moore and Eric Heisserer.

The fact that Ronald D. Moore (“Battlestar Galactica”) wrote the script makes this film promising, but I’m wary of remakes that just don’t seem like they will live up to the original. Carpenter’s “The Thing” is considered a classic in its genre and I’m not sure if the new film will be able to live up to its predecessor.