'Imagine what these scenes would be like'
July 9, 2012 3:23 PM   Subscribe

‘In 2005 Sci-Fi Channel announced that it would make a sequel to The Thing with Shawshank Redemption/The Mist director Frank Darabont serving as a producer. This earlier Thing sequel project was to be a four-hour mini-series written by Darabont’s former assistant David Leslie Johnson and broadcast on the cable channel.’ The Return of The Thing screenplay reviewed: Part 1, Part 2.

The sequel was briefly mentioned in an interview with Darabont by SuicideGirls (NSFW). Previously on MetaFilter: ’Who Goes There?’, the short story THE THING is based on. John Carpernter's THE THING: THE MUSICAL.'The Things', a story from the other viewpoint, by Peter Watts. The website Outpost 31, with THE THING video game. And an in-depth analysis, attempting to resolve the ending.
posted by the man of twists and turns (45 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm really tired and need to eat dinner, so when I started reading this post, I thought that Sci-Fi was making a crossover between The Thing and The Shawshank Redemption. I'm also tired enough that I didn't see any real issue there.
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:51 PM on July 9, 2012 [15 favorites]




paging artw to the thread, please pick up the professional white courtesy phone, please pick up the professional white courtesy phone,
posted by nathancaswell at 3:57 PM on July 9, 2012 [3 favorites]


BEATEN
posted by nathancaswell at 3:57 PM on July 9, 2012


That wasn't me.
posted by Artw at 3:57 PM on July 9, 2012 [6 favorites]


...or was it?
posted by Artw at 3:57 PM on July 9, 2012 [5 favorites]


what's with this torn set of fatigues with "ARTW" written inside in sharpie?
posted by nathancaswell at 3:58 PM on July 9, 2012 [3 favorites]


I should probably watch The Mist so I can properly complain about the ending I presume I'm not going to like.
posted by Artw at 3:58 PM on July 9, 2012 [2 favorites]


I'm interested, but wary. Why don't we just wait here for a little while... see what happens...
posted by figurant at 3:59 PM on July 9, 2012


I wish I could tell you that MacReady fought the good fight, and the Thing let him be. I wish I could tell you that - but the universe is no fairy-tale world.
posted by 2bucksplus at 3:59 PM on July 9, 2012 [4 favorites]


...or was it?

If you're wearing a different coat, I'm outta here.
posted by Kevin Street at 4:00 PM on July 9, 2012


Quick, someone tie Artw to a couch and get a flamethrower.
posted by MattWPBS at 4:01 PM on July 9, 2012 [2 favorites]


I thought that too, Tomorrowful, and was all excited about The ShawThing: Red's Mist until reading comprehension kicked in.

Still...

TIM ROBBINS: I understand you're a man who knows how to get things.

MORGAN FREEMAN: I'm known to locate certain things from time to time.

KURT RUSSELL: Then locate where that Thing went! Because it's time to get busy living or get busy dying!
posted by Panjandrum at 4:02 PM on July 9, 2012 [2 favorites]


Quick, someone tie Artw to a couch and get a flamethrower.

Please keep the MeFi slash fiction on your own site.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:04 PM on July 9, 2012 [1 favorite]


No love for James Arness, huh?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:05 PM on July 9, 2012


The original will always be the best, so many have tried to copy, and failed.
posted by Mblue at 4:07 PM on July 9, 2012


I should probably watch The Mist so I can properly complain about the ending I presume I'm not going to like.

Just re-read the short story and then imagine what could be the worse thing that could happen next. No worse than that. Much worse. Worse and stupid.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:08 PM on July 9, 2012 [3 favorites]


You've gotta be fucking kidding.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:10 PM on July 9, 2012 [2 favorites]


Well, I have been spoilers on this and my spoiler is...


SPOILER

...he offs his wife and kids because the world is fucked, but, ha ha, the world isn't fucked at all! Soldiers turn up and everything's okay! He offed his wife and kids for nothing and everything else will be fine apart from that, isn't that witty and clever?

/END SPOILERS

It just sounds a bit crap too me - it's cruel while at the same time lessening the story.

But, that said, I've never actually seen it to confirm that.
posted by Artw at 4:13 PM on July 9, 2012


The most copied.
Alien.
posted by Mblue at 4:16 PM on July 9, 2012


the man of twists and turns: "John Carpernter's THE THING: THE MUSICAL.'The Things', a story from the other viewpoint, by Peter Watts."

what

Tomorrowful: " I thought that Sci-Fi was making a crossover between The Thing and The Shawshank Redemption."

In your defense, it sounds very much like something they would attempt.
posted by zarq at 4:57 PM on July 9, 2012


Nothing will ever beat the "transmitted dream sequence" in Carpenter's _Prince of Darkness_. It *still* wigs me out a little bit.
posted by mrbill at 5:07 PM on July 9, 2012 [1 favorite]


THE MIST SPOILERS CONTINUE

It just sounds a bit crap too me - it's cruel while at the same time lessening the story.

I'm ambivalent about it. It changes the story by collapsing the scope of the ending down from bleak-outlook-for-society to grim-conclusion-for-protagonist. But "people under pressure do grim things to each other" is really the theme of the whole story -- and maybe even more so the movie. The mist is an external McGuffin that keeps them bottled up in the market; the real horrors are how they respond to that stress.

Plus it's an undercutting of your expectations of how Hollywood movies are supposed to end. The family you've been rooting for the entire movie escape to freed--WHOA WHAT THE FUCK? it's shockingly audacious.

Alternatively: it's a cheap and nasty twist ending that irredeemably sours a decent-enough monster movie.

It's worth a go though; until that derail it's a fairly faithful and fairly successful telling of the King story. And it's kinda nice to see one of his more tentacley ones done.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 5:10 PM on July 9, 2012 [2 favorites]


I love The Things.

I love Peter Watts.

I have never seen the film, and while I'm sure it's great at what it does, it's not really something I see often in my alley.

I don't really see a lot in alleys, generally, though. I really oughtta move.
posted by byanyothername at 5:16 PM on July 9, 2012


According to Darabont, Stephen King told him that he liked it better than his own (or something to that effect). On the other hand, King is famous for shit endings.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 5:25 PM on July 9, 2012 [3 favorites]


The Thing (2011) almost had it's own Space Jockey (sorta).
posted by Artw at 5:28 PM on July 9, 2012


King is famous for shit
Once.
posted by Mblue at 5:32 PM on July 9, 2012


So it's been 9 mos. since The Thing (2011) was released and we've all been served heaping piles of Thing and Alien prequels.

Has Hollywood learned it's lesson or are we all going to have to endure more recycled crap? Are they counting on old fanboys showing up to see how someone fucked-up a good idea, or are they just hoping to be sustained by the bored mallrats?

A Prometheus sequel is just about guaranteed at this point. Are we going to have to go another decade with reboots and prequels before someone comes up with a new science-fiction idea?

Anyone want to make book on remakes of Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions? Anyone?
posted by vhsiv at 6:04 PM on July 9, 2012


Two different posts, zarq. Both are fascinating!
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:07 PM on July 9, 2012


Yeah, the world missed out on Thing vs. Sharktopus! Boo hoo hoo...
posted by Renoroc at 7:30 PM on July 9, 2012 [2 favorites]


vhsiv: "So it's been 9 mos. since The Thing (2011) was released and we've all been served heaping piles of Thing and Alien prequels.

Has Hollywood learned it's lesson or are we all going to have to endure more recycled crap? Are they counting on old fanboys showing up to see how someone fucked-up a good idea, or are they just hoping to be sustained by the bored mallrats?

A Prometheus sequel is just about guaranteed at this point. Are we going to have to go another decade with reboots and prequels before someone comes up with a new science-fiction idea?

Anyone want to make book on remakes of Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions? Anyone?
"

What are those? Only movies they made about those were The Matrix and The Animatrix.

So, what are the odds we could get Matt to give us a pony that could filter out these damn alternate dimension dwellers? This is SO stale.
posted by Samizdata at 8:17 PM on July 9, 2012


So... Any thoughts on the Darrabont script? I'm not entirely convinced by it - once the thing reaches the mainland it's basically game over unless a nuke can be scrambled in time - too many vectors for escape.

Given that the thing stays put and concerns itself with humans rather than transforming an ever increasing circle of landscape, plant life included, into The Things then I guess the Andromeda strain meets Body Snatchers like plot they have is fun enough, but it doesn't really say what the resolution to that would be, so it's pretty hard to judge.
posted by Artw at 8:28 PM on July 9, 2012


...and by Darabont I mean Johnson, of course.
posted by Artw at 8:35 PM on July 9, 2012


BTW, The Thing features, IMLTHO, the coolest bad ass line EVER (and I especially love it's blatant plausibility)...

"Well. Fuck. You. Too...."
posted by Samizdata at 8:45 PM on July 9, 2012


In the movie THE THING, it didn't show any interest in food, so I think we can cross off mere biomass from the list of targets. Plants are a trickier subject - in the linked treatment, it implies animals (and large ones, at that. Imagine it if got a dragonfly, or Monarch butterfly, and travelled, oh, a thousand miles in fifteen directions...) and humans only.

I'd guess that they decide to nuke the town.

Lots of links to the script - all hosted on Megaupload.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:48 PM on July 9, 2012


If anyone could find a copy of the script NOT on MegaUpload, let me know. I can prolly come up with some way to host it for fellow MeFis. Yes, I will take the risks on it.
posted by Samizdata at 8:55 PM on July 9, 2012


Alegedly some concept art - pretty standard stuff.
posted by Artw at 9:42 PM on July 9, 2012


From what I can glean, the ending is that the things attempt to build a few score or so of the flying saucers, and crew each one with an iconic spider-legged head. Weird.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 10:07 PM on July 9, 2012


I loved the The Mist. You people are crazy.
And who doesn't love Dead Can Dance?

But a Sci-Fi Channel sequel? Man, that thing would have sucked harder than The Black Hole. ScFi (or SyFy) does not really give good SF. For every Battlestar Galactica or Stargate Universe, there are a dozen Tin Mans or Flash Gordons or fifth series of Farscape.

But would have hate-watched it, probably. Or the same reason I will see Batman 3 or Spiderman 4.


And, while The Thing prequel was ... barely okay, can I add my choice to the need for a sequel to The Thing with Shawshank Redemption's cast. That thing is Oscar Gold!
posted by Mezentian at 12:36 AM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


Spidman 4 was actually pretty great, shockingly enough. And batman 3 is getting great early reviews...so fingers crossed...
posted by Chekhovian at 4:44 AM on July 10, 2012


...Wait, there was a fifth season of Farscape?
posted by Dormant Gorilla at 9:57 AM on July 10, 2012


That's just great...yet another travesty of Campbell's truly disturbing tale--reducing insightful themes of paranoia and racism to yet another slash and bash film that's infested with over the top, computer generated whack.

I sort of liked James Arness, though.
posted by mule98J at 12:09 PM on July 10, 2012


Gaah, all these articles describing the ending of Carpenter's original as 'ambiguous'. It's not, it's completely clear once you know what to look for.

Breath vapour.

(Yes, a spoiler--for a thirty-year-old movie that you've probably watched more than once. I look forward to your bitching.)
posted by Hogshead at 3:14 PM on July 10, 2012 [2 favorites]


...Wait, there was a fifth season of Farscape?

Ever so briefly it existed as a thing that was happening. But then they axed it before filming could start.

On the plus side we got Peacekeeper Wars, which was nice of SyFy.
On the negative we had S5 torn from us before it was born and replaced with Eureka or Ghost Hunters.
posted by Mezentian at 5:22 PM on July 10, 2012 [1 favorite]


(IMHO Peacekeeper Wars sort of sucked. Season 4 kicked to boots off, but PK Wars tried and failed to tie off 4 seasons of loose ends in 3 hours. IMHO, it just didn't work.)

(Everybody but Stargate SG-1 lost on that one.)

Just keep spending all your development money over at MGM, Bonnie! Those guys actually know less about science-fiction than you do! One day, Viacom will get off of their asses and create a proper genre network, sans the Sharktopi, and steal your advertisers. Fie!
posted by vhsiv at 4:39 PM on July 31, 2012


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