bloody-disgusting.com

Exclusive

[Interview] ‘The Thing 2011′ Screenwriter Explains How The Film Transformed Into What You Saw!!!

Movies
Posted by EvanDickson on October 17, 2011 @ 2:15pm
Category: Movies / Exclusives

ThingLand101611 [Interview] The Thing 2011 Screenwriter Explains How The Film Transformed Into What You Saw!!!

So The Thing (user reviews) opened over the weekend to somewhat disappointing box office and mixed-to-negative reviews. I’ve seen the film twice now, once a couple of months ago and again two weeks back and I had issues with it on each viewing. My deep love of John Carpenter’s 1982 film was my baggage and cross to bear during my first viewing. There were certainly things I liked in this new prequel but I honestly didn’t know what my true feelings about it were. The second time I saw the film I feel like I was in a better position to divorce myself from that baggage and assess The Thing 2011 on its own merits. I tried to force myself to see how it worked just as a standalone movie – and I still had some issues. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton give good performances and there’s some cool ideas in the movie (I like it more than some of my peers) but the CG, pacing and editorial aspects never fully come together.

Of course it was never going to be as good as the 1982 John Carpenter film. No way. Not only is it so aesthetically similar to that film that it invites unfavorable comparisons, but the studio climate today doesn’t really allow slow burn movies like that to happen anymore. Remakes, sequels and prequels are considered to be “safe” investments (though after Fright Night and this… perhaps less so) and the “film by committee” syndrome is often more evident in movies like these than other studio films where new ideas can fly under the radar because they’re not yet considered valuable properties.

That’s not to say every finger should be pointed at Universal. Filmmakers are filmmakers no matter what circumstance they’re working under and sometimes part of the job is to successfully advocate for your film in that environment. If you want to own what works, you have to own what doesn’t work. And that’s ultimately how I feel about the film. Some some of it works and some of it doesn’t.

A few weeks ago I sat down with Eric Heisserer, the film’s screenwriter, for a frank chat about what does and doesn’t work in The Thing 2011. It was quite clear that he’s just as big of a fan as Carpenter’s film as anyone else and was concerned with doing it justice. He was also extremely generous with his time and we wound up talking for 90 minutes so I can only give a few highlights. Beware – this entire interview should be considered a SPOILER.

“I can tell you that we had originally planned for a slow boil of a movie. We had a lot more character work.”

Hit the jump to check it out.
READ MORE

The Thing (2011)

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on October 14, 2011 @ 12:00am
Category:

Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists. The shape-shifting creature, accidentally unleashed at this marooned colony, has the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being. It can look just like you or me, but inside, it remains inhuman.

In the thriller THE THING, paranoia spreads like an epidemic among a group of researchers as they’re infected, one by one, by a mystery from another planet. Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.

[Set Report] Reintroducing Our Trip to Toronto for ‘The Thing’

Movies
Posted by MrDisgusting on October 10, 2011 @ 3:20pm
Category: Movies / Editorials

hiresthething093011 [Set Report] Reintroducing Our Trip to Toronto for The Thing

Way back in October of 2010 Bloody Disgusting’s Chris Eggertsen took to the Toronto set of Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s The Thing prequel, which now arrives in theaters Friday. In case you missed this on set reports, I’d like to direct you to both Part 1 and Part 2, which carry interviews with the cast, producers and director.

In the R-rated prequel, “Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.”

Check back this weekend for a review.
READ MORE

Exclusive

[Interview] Joel Edgerton on Paranoia and Staying True To Carpenter In ‘The Thing’!

Movies
Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on September 26, 2011 @ 8:46pm
Category: Movies / Exclusives

It feels like Joel Edgerton is just getting warmed up. With upcoming roles in The Odd Life Of Timothy Green and The Great Gatsby (along with his critically lauded work in Warrior) it feels like the Australian native is on the precipice of becoming a major name after over a decade in the trenches. His newest movie is a little something you may have heard of called The Thing.

“Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish.”

I recently caught up with Edgerton by phone (having just seen the film myself the previous night). He’s clearly passionate about the movie and holds Carpenter’s 1982 film in very high regard.

At eighteen or so minutes we had a fairly lengthy chat about The Thing and detoured into HEAVY spoiler territory. As such, this interview has been cut down quite a bit to avoid ruining any surprises. I hope to post the unedited version at some point after the release of the film.

Check it out after the jump.

Edgerland92311 [Interview] Joel Edgerton on Paranoia and Staying True To Carpenter In The Thing!

Acolytes (V)

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on July 28, 2009 @ 12:00am
Category:

Three teens blackmail a serial killer…a chiller set in the ‘burbs and forests of Queensland.

Whisper (V)

Posted by Bloody Disgusting Staff on November 27, 2007 @ 12:00am
Category:

In the dead of winter, the kidnapping of a young boy results in fatal consequences in the supernatural thriller Whisper. Max’s last resort–and only remaining choice–is to team up with two shady associates hired by an absent mastermind to kidnap the son of one of the richest women in the state. After Max abducts the eight-year-old, he joins Roxanne and the fellow conspirators on an eerie, unsettling drive to their secluded winter hideout, an abandoned summer camp. As they await ransom instructions, the group begins to turn on each other as past suspicions, betrayals and secrets inexplicability come into play. When the escalating events take a horrific turn, it soon becomes apparent to Max that the child may not be the innocent he first appeared to be.