Variety just confirmed our exclusive news (without credit of course) that Matthijs Van Heijningen will be directing Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment’s The Thing prequel, which comes from a screenplay by Ron Moore. Fingers crossed they run with the prequel plan and avoid turning this into a remake. Beyond the break you can read the official announcement.
Universal will add a new chapter to “The Thing,” lining up another take on the paranoid horror classic most recently brought to the screen by John Carpenter in 1982.

Studio has set “Battlestar Galactica” exec producer Ron Moore to write the script and commercials director Matthijs Van Heijningen to direct the re-imagining.

New project borrows heavily from the John W. Campbell Jr. short story “Who Goes There,” the basis of the Carpenter film and 1951 Howard Hawks original “The Thing From Another World.”

It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp. Strike Entertainment’s Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing. David Foster will be exec producer.

Van Heijningen has shot blurbs for brands including Toyota, Pepsi, Heineken, Bud Light and Visa. He is also developing “Army of the Dead” at Warner Bros. with producer Zack Snyder, who also crossed from commercials to features by directing the Strike-produced “Dawn of the Dead” remake.

Below is our exclusive look at the synopsis:

In the screenplay by Ronald D. Moore, the prequel takes place from the Norwegian camps point of view. An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and members of the team that investigate. The team soon realize that an alien life-form with the ability to take over bodies is on the loose and they don’t know who may already have been taken over.