Exclusives
UPDATE: ‘The Thing’ Prequel Script Getting Rewritten!
Update: Heisserer responds directly to our breaking news! Read about it inside. We learned exclusively here at Bloody-Disgusting that Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment have tapped Eric Heisserer to rewrite The Thing prequel that was originally scripted by Ronald D. Moore (no idea how much of a rewrite). It was announced here yesterday that Heisserer also did some cleanup work on Wesley Strick’s screenplay for A Nightmare on Elm Street. Could he be the next big name is horror? It’s looking that way. Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. is attached to direct the prequel to John Carpenter’s classic film that fallowed scientists in the Antarctic that are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills.
Eric Heisserer responds to our news on his official blog:
“They were quite fast on the draw, those folks at Bloody. Yes, Matthijs and I are hard at work with the very smart team at Strike on the prequel. We are all so much in love with Carpenter’s film, so protective of it, we’re doing all we can to avoid stepping on its toes. I jumped at this job because I hold the Carpenter adaptation to very high standards, and I knew it would be a challenge to create a comparable companion piece. Sort of a “Nobody better screw this up, especially me” mentality. Lucky for me, the people at Strike and the director have the same standards.
This is a “from scratch” rewrite assignment for the most part, as was my work on A Nightmare on Elm Street. I can’t say any more on that. I have the highest respect for both Ron Moore and Wesley Strick.”
We’re pretty excited to see how it turns out. The original screenplay for The Thing prequel definitely needed some work.
In the original 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.
A gnarly infection threatens to claw its way out of a moving camper in the first trailer for Shudder’s claustrophobic Hellcat.
The feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously edited the Fantasia title Ultrasound, makes its debut on Shudder on August 14.
In Hellcat, “Lena wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginably awful fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid?”
Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters) leads the cast that also includes Todd Terry (“Breaking Bad”), Liz Atwater (The Other People), Jordan Mullins (The Bikeriders), and James Austin Johnson (“Saturday Night Live”) in a voice role. Bodell also produces alongside Andrew Duensing and Nate Eggert.
Hellcat made its world premiere last summer at Fantasia. I wrote in my review, “Hellcat is a bit of a Trojan horror that defies easy classification, by design. Bodell’s sneaky debut feature is occasionally too sparse in its worldbuilding in its bid to preserve the mystery, but not enough to detract from the thrilling road thriller that transforms into a completely left-field type of horror we don’t get nearly enough of. The stripped-down tribute to a classic horror staple catches you off guard in more ways than one, marking Bodell as one to watch.”
In other words, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Hellcat‘s simple infection setup, delivering plenty of surprises along its bumpy road of horrors.
Check out the trailer and poster below and add Hellcat to your watchlists asap.
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