THE THING Prequel Has Its Leads

The prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing starts shooting mid-March and we’ve finally got news of our main leads for the film.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Death Proof, Scott Pilgrim) and Joel Edgerton (Kinky Boots, The Secret Life of Us) will play Kate Loyd and Sam Carter, respectively. The two are American characters mixed in with the Norwegian researchers who originally unearth the alien entity that goes on to terrorize Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley in the 1982 sci-fi classic.

A leaked casting breakdown describes the characters as follows:

Kate:

pretty, bright-eyed, intelligent, she’s a graduate of Columbia and a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life). On the recommendation of her friend Adam Goodman, Kate is tapped for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by Dr. Sander Halvorson to join his research team in Antarctica, where an extraordinary discovery has been made. Upon arrival, Kate soon finds herself at odds with Halvorson about how best to proceed with the discovery — an alien spaceship with a mysterious and sinister frozen THING found nearby — specifically whether to transfer the specimen undisturbed to a more appropriate facility for analysis, or, per Halvorson’s wishes, to drill into the specimen’s ice encasement for a definitive tissue sample.

Sam:

In his early 30s, rugged, handsome, blue-collar, he’s a helicopter pilot with a private charter service that transports personnel and supplies from McMurdo Station to remote research sites across Antarctica. Carter is a mercenary. He flies when he wants, where he wants, and he flies for one reason: money. But his resourcefulness, experience and get-it-done mentality make him indispensable.

While this film is a definite prequel, it seems as though it will be very American-centric as opposed to blatantly Norwegian. Take into account the premise of the film, it might as well be a remake. It’s damn near identical.

In a remote Antarctica outpost, an alien spaceship is discovered far beneath the ice. When a group of ambitious scientists decide to thaw out one of the creatures inside, they’re in for the terrifying fight of their lives…

That being said, I’m curious about this, as The Thing is my favorite film of all time. Cautiously curious…

Source: Heat Vision