As many of you may know by now, I am a HUGE Big Trouble in Little China fan.  That film was gloriously brought to life (and later cult classic status) by legendary film maker John Carpenter. Aside from the behemoth that is BTILC, one of his other uber favorites of mine is The Thing. Now I had heard whispers last year of Universal Pictures’ idea to give this film either a prequel, a remake or a sequel. All three of them were bad news in my opinion, but still, the studio pressed on.

Last January, news surfaced that Universal Pictures had a screenplay for their prequel to The Thing and a collective groan was widely heard the world over. That news made me cringe then and thanks to this latest tidbit, I feel more or less the same. This prequel will be directed by talented commercial director Matthijs Van Hejningen shooting will begin this March.

Now for a screenplay to sit around this long in the impatient studios of Hollywood is suspicious. Some might say that it was because their plate was full of other pictures they were trying to finish. Others might say they needed this long to get the re-write. My guess is that this film’s development was kick-started as a follow up to the news of Ridley Scott’s efforts to give the his Alien film a prequel.  With all the disappointing prequels out there now, I bet Universal didn’t want to be the next in the firing line to make a poorly received film, to say nothing about one to such a popular film as The Thing.  What’s next, a prequel to The Terminator?

We got word on this (possibly ill-fated) project from /Film.  Thanks for the head up guys, but more importantly thanks for the assembly of 8 of Matthijs’ more popular and, might I add, pretty good-looking commercials.  I recommend you click here to check them out.  He’s got a talent, I’ll give him that. Despite my apparent opposition above, I’m holding out a little hope for Matthijs.  I believe this project may actually work (or at least surprise me) due to the fact that I remember another “commercial director” who went on to great things after a smash-up remake of another horror classic.

Yep, I’m talking about Zack Snyder. He started his career directing commercials (that Subaru commercial in the beginning of the Dawn of the Dead remake was his) and look how he fared. Also btw, Matthijs Van Hejningen is also attached to direct Army of the Dead, a Zack Snyder-conceived and reputedly epic undead-actioner set around a zombie swamped Las Vegas. Oh boy, I smell something similar to a little Peter Jackson/Neill Blomkamp tag team happening:)

But back to this crazy prequel idea, here’s hoping he has a good screenplay to work with or this could be trouble.  I really don’t want to lay down my “I told you so card” but we’ll see. What say you loyal Thing fans? Think this is a good idea? Anyone looking forward to this??

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