Earlier this year, acclaimed director John Carpenter hinted that there might be a direct sequel to the popular sci-fi horror film. The thing.
He said this to a fan over the Texas Freemare Weekend:
“I had to swear to keep it a secret, but there could be something 2, and I don’t know if it will happen.”
The thing is…
Since then it’s been pretty quiet about this potential sequel. But now another director is also talking about a sequel.
Dutchman Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., who directed the 2011 prequel The Thing, recently spoke with SyFy Wire about a scrapped plan for a direct sequel to HIS.
Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., who helmed the prequel to 2011’s The Thing, reveals what story he has planned for the unmade follow-up film. https://t.co/KwQ8PfCLan
— Screen Rant (@screenrant) October 5, 2023
We regret things
The film would have revolved around paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the sole survivor of the Norwegian massacre in the film, but it would also have taken place at the same time as the events of Carpenter’s classic.
According to van Heijningen:
“Kate will escape and be captured at sea. On an oil drilling platform near the Antarctic, she will try to tell the rest of the world what happened. Then the monster explodes on the platform. That would have been a surprise.” great idea.”
However, when his film flopped, the studio behind the prequel dropped the idea. Van Heijnen adds:
“Carpenter’s version was so incredibly good, many fans were offended by the prequel and have turned away from it. I now completely understand how they feel.”
Things are changing
Finally, Dutchman addressed one of the biggest complaints about his film: the fact that many of the practical effects created by VFX legends Alec Gillies and Tom Woodruff Jr. were abysmal. Replaced with bad CGI in post-production:
“I know there’s a lot of discussion about this, but we were at a crossroads at the time where the practical effects were old-fashioned and the CGI wasn’t good enough yet. However, we made the wrong decision by creating the monster using CGI. And that’s where I regret it now.” .
If I were to make the movie now, I would develop the characters better, use less CGI and incorporate more paranoia into the script. The problem is not being able to trust anyone. We could have developed this topic better.”
Interesting detail: Oddly enough, the 2011 film became a hit on Netflix in the US earlier this year.
