The Thing (Prequel) Release 10/14/2011

Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen (Full Cast) Studio: Universal Pictures The Plot: At an Antarctica research site, the discovery of an alien craft leads to a confrontation between graduate student Kate Lloyd (Winstead) and scientist Dr. Sander Halvorson (Thomsen). While Dr. Halvorson keeps to his research, Kate partners with Sam Carter (Edgerton), a helicopter pilot, to pursue the alien life form. THE BUZZ: With all the talk about the Alien prequel, we forgot about this origin story that will show what happened on the Norwegian research base in Antarctic right before the opening events of John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi/horror classic. We have to imagine that the presence of screenwriter Ronald D. Moore, beloved by genre fans for reviving "Battlestar Galactica" and creating the "Caprica" spin-off, has spared this project from being savaged by the fanboy dogpack. Furthermore, we appreciate the apparent high level of consideration for story integrity, given the long period of development (the better part of 4 years) and forthcoming about character ambiguities that were hopefully cleared up with some reshot footage. As long as they didn't devise a way to include a Kurt Russell cameo, we won't freak out too much. Also, with Paul W. S. Anderson's buzzing Three Musketeers remake being release this same week, we think The Thing will be repositioned yet again.