Saturday October 9, 1:30 PM
Panelists: Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., Actors Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Eric Christian Olsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Producers Marc Abraham and Eric Newman
Universal Pictures is releasing a prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing by the same name next year. The film takes place three days before the 1982 film and tells the story of the Norwegian base in Antarctica.
There was lots of interest and excitement about the original amongst the panelists, implying that this film will treat its predecessor with reverence. It will include what promises to be a nearly exact replica of the Norwegian camp, a story that will plug many of the holes in the previous film and the same shape-shifting monster.
“I pushed really hard for having practical monsters,” explained director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., “not only as a tribute to John Carpenter… but when the actor opens a door and sees a green tennis ball, it’s a little different from seeing a 7-foot monster.”
Most of The Thing was filmed in a quarry covered with white foam in Toronto, explained actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. Parts were also shot in Vancouver, and some outdoor scenes were staged outside a town named Stewart, B.C., where a lot of the original was filmed.
An exciting trailer was shown to the public and to much of the cast for the first time at Comic Con. The timeline for a wider debut was unclear, but the film is set for an April 29th theatrical release.
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