Category: Film News

Posted on in Film News

John Boyega Feels Finn and Rose Were Sidelined In ‘Star Wars’ Sequels – Did Disney Cave To Online Racists?

With the Star Wars franchise behind him, John Boyega has spoken with GQ about his experience making the recent trilogy and he basically feels that Lucasfilm/Disney had no idea what to with his character Finn in the two sequels after making him a huge deal during the marketing leading up to the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

BOYEGA: “You get yourself involved in projects and you’re not necessarily going to like everything. [But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.”

“Like, you guys knew what to do with Daisy Ridley, you knew what to do with Adam Driver. You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all. So what do you want me to say? What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience…’ Nah, nah, nah. I’ll take that deal when it’s a great experience. They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.”

It is worth noting that during the release of The Force Awakens, John Boyega received a massive backlash from racists furious that a black actor was playing a Stromtrooper and there was call for a boycott claiming “white genocide”. The main gripe seemed to be folks were upset that a black character was getting a spotlight in a predominantly white franchise, despite Mace Windu and Lando Calrissian being established characters.

I imagine most people forgot this was even a thing, but here is a refresher of what happened after the first trailer reveal.

This was a small amount of people but it’s hard to ignore that Finn’s role in the subsequent sequels was drastically decreased and he became more of a supporting player like Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron. It would be hard to argue that Finn was one of the three main characters in The Force Awakens and his diminished arc was a little upsetting given that Colin Trevorrow’s Duel of The Fates would have had Finn in much more heroic and impactful role.

There is a strong possibility to avoid more racially-fueled backlash they rolled-back Finn a bit in Star Wars: The Last Jedi as he was relegated to a side character.

Kelly Marie Tran experienced her own wave of racist online bullying from the toxic side of fandom in the wake of her role as Rose Tico in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which saw racial slurs being mixed into complaints of her performance and how the character was written.

This led the actress to quit social media.

In retrospect, Disney seemingly caved to both these weird racist reactions to Finn and Rose as they both saw their hierarchy in the franchise diminished, they also happened to be the two minority characters in the trilogy. Finn’s force sensitively that was teased in Star Wars: The Force Awakens was never fully realized and Rose’s screentime in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker essentially became a glorified cameo after having such a significant role in the previous film.

People also noticed that Disney’s merchandise for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker failed to include Rose leading up to the release, a possible attempt of an erasure of the character in light of the racist backlash from the last film.

It certainly feels like Disney just placed the characters into the background and pulled back on giving them a substantial journey to avoid anymore negative outrage and possibly in their minds targeted harassment. However, I think the latter would be a little harder to believe.

Disney and Lucasfilm certainly said how important the characters were in the press rounds but wasn’t really reflected on the screen.

John certainly is allowed to express his feelings and we were also frustrated by the creative choices made with his character after all the potential on display in The Force Awakens.

SOURCE: GQ

Posted on in Film News

‘Scream 5’ Adds ‘The Boys’ Actor Jack Quaid – Releases January 2022

Variety has reported another new addition to the cast of Scream 5, as they’ve added Jack Quaid in an undisclosed role. Jack is best known for playing the comic book character Hughie Campbell in the Amazon Prime Video series The Boys, which will see it’s second season drop on September 4th.

Scream 5 is being called a reboot by certain trades but the title and returning cast would suggest it’s more of a continuation, if anything.

Officially, Courtney Cox and David Arquette will reprise their roles of reporter Gale Weathers and Sheriff Dewey Cox. Jack joins fellow new additions Melissa Barrera (In the Heights) and Jenna Ortega (Jane The Virgin).

Actress Neve Campbell confirmed talks for her return to play Sidney Prescott before that interview was ultimately deleted from YouTube. Her name has been absent from these casting reports, but it’s likely she’ll sign on.

Ready or Not’s Matthew Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are directing from a script penned by James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick.

The original film from Wes Craven followed Sidney Prescott and her group of high school friends as a killer “Ghostface” is going around town killing students which leads to Cox’s tabloid reporter Gale Weathers to return to the town after writing a sleazy tell-all-book about the murder of Sidney’s mother. Craven’s take on the slasher was to be more of a send-up/satire of the genre itself and harped on the troupes as rules to stay alive.

It’s expected that this new film will continue the cheeky tradition of being a satire.

I know my first thought is that Jack is more or less either going to play the killer or the stand-in for Jamie Kennedy’s video store character Randy.

The horror pic will be released on January 14th, 2022 by Paramount Pictures.

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Film News

‘Ant-Man 3’ Director Peyton Reed Says Sequel Is Much Bigger and More Sprawling Than Last Two Movies

Marvel Studios is still trying to finish productions on both film and television shows they weren’t able to complete earlier in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we finally have a neat update concerning Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man 3.

While speaking to The Jess Cagle Show on SiriusXM (via Collider), Peyton mentioned that Ant-Man 3 will be bigger and much more sprawling than the previous two installments of the franchise as they’re still working on the film during the pandemic. 

REED: “We are working away through the pandemic. There’s some really really really exciting things in store, none of which of course I could speak to you about right now, as is the Marvel way. I think the third Ant-Man movie is going to be a much bigger more sprawling movie than the first two. It’s going to have a very different visual template.”

It might be a good idea to see them change gears with the upcoming film given that the Ant-Man films are arguably the ones that have the least connection with global audiences as reflected in the box office returns in comparison to the other solo films. 

Thor had been in a similar situation before Taika Waititi took over with Thor: Ragnarok giving the franchise a much need boost of creativity and Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness is expected to up the stakes in a similar way. The commonality is that they’re including way more characters than previous films to help increase the energy and scale. 

Considering the power-set of Ant-Man and Cassie Lang’s superhero persona of Stature the “bigger” sentiment might actually be literal. 

One way to go is to really lean into the homage of Japanese kaiju movies as Reed previously has mentioned in the past. In 2018, Reed responded on Twitter to a fan question that Ant-Man’s suit was directly inspired by Ultraman and Infra-Man. 

REED: “Ant-Man’s look wasn’t inspired by Kamen Rider, but I will say that we referenced both Ultraman and Infra-Man when discussing the suit. Close enough, right?”

Ant-Man 3 could be an excellent excuse to take on elements of traditional large-scale monster movies placing the MCU into the realm of the Monsterverse (Legendary’s Godzilla and King Kong cinematic universe) and Pacific Rim, given that there are plenty of large monsters in Marvel Comics allowing Scott or Cassie (as Stature) to battle building-size threats. 

Having various creatures escape the Quantum Realm only to increase to a massive/destructive size could be a fun way to go.

Attempting to move things outside of San Francisco would also be nice change and could lead to the film being “visually different”. I’d love to see a Marvel Studios movie take place in Tokyo, Japan as we only briefly saw the location used in Avengers: Endgame.

Before the pandemic, Ant-Man 3 was said to be aiming for an early 2021 shoot and would be spending some of its production in the United Kingdom at Pinewood Studios UK and also return to San Francisco for exterior scenes. 

We already know that officially Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lily, and Michael Douglas will be returning with the assumption that we’ll see Michelle Michelle Pfeiffer back as Janet and newcomer Emma Fuhrmann as the teenage version of Cassie Lang. 

Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings has finally resumed production at Fox Studios Australia in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Other productions such as Spider-Man 3, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love & Thunder have yet to begin as they were originally planned to start up in 2020 but will likely be bumped into 2021 leading to more production/release delays in the future. 

While Disney/Marvel Studios haven’t officially announced a release date for the third Ant-Man movie, there is an expectation it could be ready to be released sometime in 2022 if production gets off and running next year. 

SOURCE: THE JESS CAGLE SHOW

Posted on in Film News

‘New Mutants’ Earns A Paltry $7M After Dismal Reviews and PR Blunders – Another Sour Note As Fox’s X-Men Era Comes To An End

Wow, it’s been months since I’ve tackled a box office article, but here we go!

New Mutants had to fight off persistent and incorrect rumors that the film would be simply thrown on the Disney+ streaming service, bypassing a traditional theatrical release. It did magically avoid a streaming dump but hasn’t avoided what looks to be one of the worst PR blunders running up to a major film’s release in recent memory.

First, during the media rounds, writer/director Josh Boone did a piss-poor job defending the white-washing of Roberto aka Sunspot to io9, who is dark-skinned Afro-Brazilian in the comic books. Alice Braga playing another traditionally dark-skinned character with Dr. Cecilia Reyes was another example of the director/studio white-washing these X-Men characters. 

New Mutants co-creator Bob McLeod voiced his concern with the white-washing on social media, while also pointing out the film misspelled his name in the credits to “Bob Macleod” and lamented that this was forever cemented in the film. 

Josh Boone and Fox had been mostly concerned about getting Bill Sienkiewicz’s approval for the film having him get involved with the promotion and marketing of the film.

The film also got tagged for Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik making odd racial remarks towards Native American character Danni Moonstar, played by Blu Hunt. 

Take this Vulture report with a grain of salt, but they claim that 20th Century Fox had originally hated the original version of the film so much they had planned on reshooting the entire thing. These expensive reshoot plans were seemingly scrapped after the merger between Disney and 21st Century Fox last year was finalized.

Boone and his co-writer, Knate Lee, were reluctant or outright unwilling to implement such script changes requested by the studio, requiring round after round of rewrites and one intervention-like roundtable read just before filming. Once principal photography was finished, Fox was so displeased with the initial cut the studio discussed throwing the entire movie out to “start over” with a total reshoot. 

This could explain why it took so long for the film to get released.

Many outlets flat-out refused to review New Mutants at all citing unsafe environments for employees and that 20th Century Studios didn’t provide reviewers with safe screening options to review their film. This combination didn’t bode well for the film as it’s Rotten Tomatoes critics score currently is at 32% with an audience score of 53%. 

The box office returns this weekend aren’t great either. Deadline reports the film’s estimated domestic earnings for the weekend will be around $7 million, which is nothing to get excited about. This makes New Mutants the new reigning champion of the lowest box office opening for an X-Men film surpassing the previous record holder, Dark Phoenix, that earned $32.8 million. 

The outlet also points out that only 62% of cinemas are open in the U.S. with capacity restrictions in the range of 25-50%. It begs the question, why are studios even attempting to release expensive films at this point in the pandemic?

For some comparison, Russell Crowe’s low-budget thriller Unhinged made $4 million last weekend and didn’t have anything close to the marketing campaign as New Mutants. 

It’s worth no witing that film’s budget is said to be in the realm of $100 million and the estimated $7 million domestic opening weekend is likely going to signal the film might not even be able to cover its budget let alone the marketing costs to turn a profit. 

These low box office earnings are a direct result of the pandemic and an industry desperate to get back on its feet, despite being in the middle of a pandemic and going to the theater is still a massive risk to personal health to yourself/loved ones. 

Looking at this as “a good start” for the return of movies isn’t a constructive perspective, it’s just making excuses when studios releasing pricey films in this environment are more than likely not going to turn a profit from box office sales alone and seriously puts the theater industry in more peril in the future by not giving studios incentives to keep films in their 2020 release dates. 

We’ve already seen Paramount Pictures move the October release date of their G.I. Joe film Snake Eyes to October 22nd, 2021, and I suspect we’ll see more fall films jump to 2021. 

I was really rooting for the film but this would certainly cement that Marvel Studios has zero plans to continue this franchise with sequels or connecting it to the great Marvel Cinematic Universe. Letting the Fox era of the X-Men just end might be a good idea as it allows Marvel the creative freedom to do a complete reboot of all these characters eventually.

Posted on in Film News

‘Snake Eyes’ Moved To October 22nd, 2021 By Paramount

It was revealed yesterday by Paramount Pictures that they have delayed the release for their G.I. Joe spinoff origin film Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins an entire year, moving it from October 23rd to October 22nd, 2021. 

This is a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic and Paramount is likely looking closely at how poorly New Mutants is doing this weekend giving them cold feet to sticking to that original October release date. 

Snake Eyes is an origin film that will explore the connection between the silent G.I. Joe member played by Henry Golding and his villainous rival Storm Shadow played by Andrew Koji along with the Shadow’s push towards the terrorist organization Cobra. 

The prequel was shot in Vancouver and Japan by director Robert Schwentke from a script penned by Evan Spiliotopoulos.

Here is the rundown of the film’s cast. 

  • Henry Golding as Snake Eyes 
  • Andrew Koji as Storm Shadow 
  • Úrsula Corberó as The Baroness 
  • Iko Uwais as Hard Master
  • Peter Mensah as Blind Master
  • Samara Weaving as Scarlett
  • Steven Allerick
  • Takehiro Hira
  • Haruka Abe

A third G.I. Joe film is also said to be in the works that could see the character Chuckles take the lead role. However, this project has been in the works for ages and still hasn’t come together. 

SOURCE: PARAMOUNT

Posted on in Film News

Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy Teases Desire To Explore ‘The Old Republic’ Again?

Could we finally see Lucasfilm tackle a cinematic version of The Old Republic era?

While speaking with The Wrap, Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy recently talked about the future of Star Wars suggesting an interest of exploring other eras in the universe as they’re currently stepping back to figure what they want to do as they focus more on the Disney+ shows for the next couple of years.

Specifically mentioning the mythology of Star Wars spanning over 25,000 years, an obvious reference to The Old Republic.

KENNEDY: “And now we’re stepping back. Stories have been told within this universe over the last 40-odd years, and there’s now the realization that this is a mythology that actually spans about 25,000 years, when you really start to look at all the different stories that have been told, whether it’s in books and games.”

“We just need the time to step back and really absorb what George has created, and then start to think about where things might go. That’s what we’ve been doing, and we’ve been having a great deal of fun doing it, and meeting with lots of different filmmakers and talent. There’s so many fans out there and so many filmmakers that have been influenced by Star Wars for so long that it’s a fantastic opportunity to get a sense of who wants to be a part of this. So that’s what we’ve been doing.”

This isn’t the first time Kennedy has teased an interest in going backwards with Star Wars mythology, when asked by MTV News about development on something in The Old Republic, Kennedy confirmed development but stopped short on giving any details about when that could happen.

KENNEDY: “You know, we talk about that all the time. Yes, we are developing something to look at.”

You can see that exchange from last year’s Star Wars Celebration below.

Last year, BuzzFeed reported that the Altered Carbon series creator Laeta Kalogridis was writing a Star War film that was set within The Old Republic and could potentially become a trilogy.

There was also some interesting news this week as it was announced via Deadline that Netflix has cancelled Altered Carbon after two seasons allowing Kalogridis to move on to other things, like this potential Old Republic trilogy for Lucasfilm/Disney.

Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love & Thunder director Taika Waititi is officially helming a Star Wars movie for the studio, but details about his project are scarce. He’ll be co-writing with Oscar nominated screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns (Last Night In Soho, 1917).

We still don’t know where in the timeline that film will be taking place.

The scope of The Old Republic would allow Lucasfilm and filmmakers to create a brand new path for the Star Wars film franchise since they could jump into certain points in the past and not being beholden to the original trilogy along with forced to connect to it because there is so much time between the eras.

I guess we’ll have to wait to get some solid details from Lucasfilm what they are planning on doing.

Posted on in Film News

‘The Suicide Squad’ Footage May Confirm Cosmic ‘Justice League’ Villain Starro Will Appear

It’s starting to look like the main threat of James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, might not be Earthbound. Folks such as Knight Edge Media have seemingly have spotted a blurry shot of what looks to be one of Starro The Conqueror’s facehugger-like alien creatures on the face of a soldier the Suicide Squad as taken out. 

A villain that has already been previously rumored for the sequel via Splash Report. 

I’ve tried to make the pink creature as clear as possible with my own edited screenshots which you can see below. Images were taken from the sizzle reel/behind-the-scenes video revealed during DC FanDome over the weekend. 

James Gunn could have decided to use Starro as a slight nod to his sci-fi horror film Slither from 2006. While fans have assumed Taika Waititi would be voicing King Shark, there is a good chance Starro could be an option.

There seem to be more soldiers with the pink creature in the background that I can spot but are much harder to make out in the image. 

This wouldn’t be the only alien character in the film as in the comic books Mongal (played by Mayling Ng) is an alien warlord. 

The Suicide Squad is set to be released on August 6th, 2021. 

Posted on in Film News

‘The Boys’ Star Antony Starr Open To Playing Wolverine In Marvel’s ‘X-Men’

There has been a small fan campaign online to get New Zealand actor Antony Starr into the mix to play Logan aka Wolverine in the Marvel Studios reboot of the X-Men franchise. 

While promoting the second season of Amazon’s The Boys, Antony spoke to Screen Greek where he revealed an interest in playing the berserker mutant if the opportunity knocked after being asked which X-Men character he’d like to play. 

STARR: “I would say Wolverine!”

“Big shoes to fill, man. Jackman’s pretty much put his mark on that, hasn’t he? So, I never say never, man – but at the moment, I’m just enjoying what we’re doing here. I mean, to be honest, Wolverine doesn’t wear spandex, which is definitely a negative for me. I do like the feel of tight pants, you know, if they can tighten the jeans up, maybe.”

“We can get some kind of tight leather jeans going on – or maybe a pants suit. I could be tempted – but I’m just happy to be doing what I’m doing, brother, and whatever comes, comes. I appreciate the fans, you know. We’ve got a great bunch of fans and they’re really enthusiastic and passionate, so, I love their ideas and their support. I hope they enjoy Season Two of The Boys and I’m just stoked we get a chance to do Season Three as well.”

The actor currently plays Homelander on the satirical superhero series The Boys, an extremely dark take on the Superman archetype. His co-star and fellow Kiwi, Karl Urban, just happened to play Skurge The Executioner in Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok directed by Taika Watititi. 

Season 2 of The Boys drops on September 4th on Amazon Prime Video and they’ve already announced Season 3 is moving forward.

Antony isn’t the role actor being suggested by fans. 

There has been relentless effort to have Kingsman actor Taron Egerton considered for the role which the actor has downplayed in various interviews over the last two years.

Taron has a connection to former Wolverine, Hugh Jackman, as they co-starred together in the sports comedy Eddie The Eagle. He called the persistent Wolverine rumors “flattering” while chatting with GQ recently but, yet again, downplayed their validity. 

EGERTON: “That anyone thinks I would be good for the part is really flattering. I love Marvel, but it’s just fan stuff. There is no grounding for those rumours.”

Speaking of Hugh, he had voiced his support for Mad Max: Fury Road actor Tom Hardy to take over the role before he eventually was cast as Sony’s Eddie Brock aka Venom.

Last year, X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn revealed to Coming Soon he wanted to cast a younger version of Wolverine with Tom Hardy for a film that would take place between First Class and X-Men: Day of Future Past. 

VAUGHN: “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t continue because they didn’t listen to me. My plan was First Class, then the second film was new young Wolverine in the 70s to continue those characters, my version of the X-Men. So you’d really get to know all of them, and my finale was gonna be Days of Future Past. That was gonna be my number three where you bring them all… because what’s bigger than bringing in McKellen and Michael and Stewart and James and bringing them all together?” 

“When I finished the Days of Future Past script with it ready to go I looked at it and said, ‘I really think it would be fun to cast Tom Hardy or someone as the young Wolverine and then bring it all together at the end’. Fox read Days of Future Past and went ‘Oh, this is too good! We’re doing it now!’. And I said, ‘Well what do you do next? Trust me you’ve got nowhere to go’. Then they did Apocalypse and it’s like… If you flip that round even it would have been better. Hollywood doesn’t understand pacing. Their executives are driving 100 miles-per-hour looking in the rear-view mirror and not understanding why they crash.”

Hardy is very unlikely to be considered given his current role in the Venom franchise.

Marvel Studios is currently dealing with a backlog of film and television projects after the Coronavirus pandemic paused multiple productions globally, combined with previous hints from Marvel’s Kevin Feige that they’re not in any rush to make a new X-Men film anytime soon. 

A Fantastic Four reboot is rumored to be the first former Fox property that they’ll be building a film around. However, neither a director nor a screenwriter has been announced. 

SOURCE: SCREEN GEEK

Posted on in Film News

Scott Derrickson Teases Remaking John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ – Matt Reeves Had Been Previously Attached To Reboot It For Universal

Scott Derrickson Teases Remaking John Carpenter’s ‘They Live’ – Matt Reeves Almost Made A Reboot Of The Film For Universal 

Yesterday there was an update that John Carpenter and Blumhouse would be working together on an upcoming remake of The Thing based on the lost manuscript Frozen Hell, the longer original version of Who Goes There? written by John W. Campbell.

It was interesting to see another John Carpenter remake being brought-up by Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson. He says his kids are trying to convince him to remake the 1988 film They Live starring Roddy Piper and Kieth David. The film was a political satire covering classism wrapped around an alien invasion action film.

They Live has seen a newfound relevancy given what is currently going on in the United States with violence and misinformation being used to pacify citizens questioning authority, the system, and current leadership. It was a direct product and commentary of the Ronald Reagan era from Carpenter.

THEY LIVE – Nada (Roddy Piper), a wanderer without meaning in his life, discovers a pair of sunglasses capable of showing the world the way it truly is. As he walks the streets of Los Angeles, Nada notices that both the media and the government are comprised of subliminal messages meant to keep the population subdued and that most of the social elite are skull-faced aliens bent on world domination. With this shocking discovery, Nada fights to free humanity from the mind-controlling aliens.

Scott recently exited Marvel’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness and is now attached to make a sequel to Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. 

Like The Thing, They Live was an adaptation of an existing science fiction story turned into a screenplay by John Carpenter. In the case of They Live, it was loosely based on Ray Nelson’s short story Eight O’Clock In The Morning. 

While we’re not sure of any active plans for a reboot, there have been attempts in the past with Universal Pictures hiring Matt Reeves in 2011 to both write and direct the project. Reeves seemingly being hired after he successfully did an English remake of the Swedish vampire film Let The Right One In with his version Let Me In. 

Of course, Reeves ended up making Dawn of The Planet of The Apes and War For The Planet of The Apes for 20th Century Fox instead of tackling a They Live remake for Universal Pictures. He’s currently in production on The Batman reboot in England which recently dropped an impressive teaser trailer cobbled together with footage from a shoot that was only 25-30% complete when it was placed on hiatus due to the pandemic. 

It doesn’t seem like Reeves is in any position to return to the They Live reboot given that he’s been talking about complete a Batman trilogy with Robert Pattinson’s incarnation of the DC Comics hero. 

There is a strong chance that Universal, Blumhouse, and John Carpenter could eventually make a deal for They Live after reviving Halloween and is expected to remake The Thing as well. 

SOURCE: SCOTT DERRICKSON

Posted on in Film News

John Carpenter and Blumhouse Teaming For Reboot of ‘The Thing’ – Remake Expected To Be Based On Lost Manuscript ‘Frozen Hell’

Variety is reporting that Universal and Blumhouse are indeed developing a reboot of the classic science fiction horror film The Thing and are getting John Carpenter involved, not unlike with their recent revivals of the Halloween franchise. 

This isn’t exactly new information, however, John Carpenter’s reported involvement certainly is. What his exact role on the project will be isn’t clear but becoming an executive producer and consultant would be an excellent bet to make. 

Back in January, it was announced by John Betancourt that Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions were aiming to fast-track a new version/remake of The Thing based on the lost manuscript version Frozen Hell, which is much longer and predates the original novella Who Goes There? from author John W. Campbell Jr. 

“In 1938, acclaimed science fiction author John W. Campbell published the novella Who Goes There?, about a team of scientists in Antarctica who discover and are terrorized by a monstrous, shape-shifting alien entity. The story would later be adapted into John Carpenter’s iconic movie The Thing (following an earlier film adaptation in 1951). The published novella was actually an abridged version of Campbell’s original story, called Frozen Hell, which had to be shortened for publication. The Frozen Hell manuscript remained unknown and unpublished for decades, and it was only recently rediscovered.”

The novella was adapted into two films with John’s 1982 film The Thing and 1951’s The Thing From Another World, there was also a disastrous prequel to 1982 film released in 2011 which was a commercial flop for Universal and famously ruined practical effects by painting CGI all over it.

Variety also points out that Carpenter revealed talks with Blumhouse and their plan to reboot The Thing has taken place during a Q&A at the Fantasia International Film Festival. 

CARPENTER: “I have? I don’t know about that, but we’ve talked about — I think he’s going to be working on The Thing, rebooting ‘The Thing.’ I’m involved with that, maybe. Down the road.”

It was suggested back in January it was being fast-tracked but a screenwriter isn’t being named in this new report. 

The Carpenter film is considered the apex of practical special effects. 

THE THING – In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.

SOURCE: VARIETY