Remaking Carpenter's 'The Thing' - No!

Jeremy Ordan

Jeremy Ordan

Major Contributor
From AICN

Ack! Universal remaking Carpenter's THE THING!?!?!?
Ahhh! Umm.... ahhh.... Ahoy, squirts! Quint here... Okay... I want to start off in full control of my jerking knee... The logical part of my brain says I can't freak out about Universal remaking John Carpenter's brilliant THE THING because Carpenter's film itself was a remake of Howard Hawks' THE THING... There is a certain pedigree behind this remake, but one that I don't trust.

Ronald D. Moore is writing... he's producer and writer of the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which everybody tells me is brilliant, but I haven't watched a single episode... I see he also wrote some CARNIVALE, which I loved and had his hand in STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT, which is the best of the Next Generation TREKS... But he also had his hand in Mission: Impossible 2...

The producers are Marc Abraham and Eric Newman, who were behind the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake. That scares me a bit. As much as I respected the style and hardcore elements of the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake, the movie is a hollow-shell of the original and I don't want to see that happen here. With THE THING, the character work is so important. So, so, so important and that's the stuff that was glossed over in the DAWN remake...

David Foster, who produced the original, is onboard as well. Foster's a nice guy. I've talked with him at length about his work with Carpenter, but he also spear-headed the FOG remake that was so awful... So, much like the movie, I don't know who to trust...

I don't like this idea, but maybe we'll get a decent film out of it... one encouraging bit is a comment from the producers saying they want this film to be a "companion piece" to Carpenter's film, not a shot by shot remake... But I still am very wary of this. THE THING is one of those movies you don't **** with, so hopefully these guys know what a fine line they're walking here...
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Worst idea ever!
 
A little part of me just died...

or to quote JC's masterpiece,

You've got to be f*cking kidding...
 
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Carpenter's "The Thing" is perfect on so many levels. I watch it every year around Halloween and am amazed how it still holds up after all these years. Besides the dated computer shots, the movie is timeless. This news makes me sick to my stomach.
 
I don't have a problem with a remake as long as it's not shot to shot. I look forward to it. If it's good, it's like having an extension to a movie you love. If it's bad, we'll it was interesting to see how they screwed it up.
 
well...until Carpenter's version, an awful lot of people (who presumably never read the original story) thought that the Chris Nyby film was a 'classic...'
 
The original is just perfect, especially the ending of them just sitting there waiting to die.

What a great film that doesn't need to be remade...

This then leads to a great question:

What films are so good that they do not merit a remake?
 
ooo good question...

Lawrence of Arabia
Casablance
The Maltese Falcon (the John Huston version, itself a remake)
The Good Thief (a remake of 'Bob the Gambler')
Star Wars EPs III & IV (well, before Lucas sort of remade them...)
Close Encounters
Mad Max
The Road Warrior
The African Queen


...what about basically good or classic films that *would* benefit from a remake?
 
From: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=54538&highlight=Yesterday+Today

CallaghanFilms said:
Steve Martin has basically made a career outta making remakes. A few weren't bad reincarnations at all:
-Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (remake of Bedtime Story)
and
-Little Shop of Horrors was better than the original
but
Most have paled in comparison:
-The Out-of-Towners
-Cheaper By The Dozen
-The Pink Panther

A few remakes that were better than their parent film:
-The Thing over The Thing from Another World (even though James Arness' Thing was scary as hell)
-The Fly
-The Man Who Knew Too Much (Hitch outdid himself with the Jimmy Stewart version)
-The Birdcage over La Cage aux folles
-Always over A Guy Named Joe
-The Magnificent Seven over The Seven Samurai (debatable)

However, most fall short of the picture that sired them:
-The Flight of the Phoenix
-Scarface
-Sabrina
-The End of the Affair
-Henry V
-The Ladykillers
-House On Haunted Hill
-The Manchurian Candidate
-Meet Joe Black over Death Takes A Holiday
...and so on and so forth

And some had no business EVER being remade:
-Mr. Deeds (Capra's classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is sacred stuff)
-Miracle on 34th Street
-Mighty Joe Young
-The Time Machine
-and of course Psycho :eek:WTF?!
Click to expand...
 
Chad/David...

I know it is not the original... even the article I posted said that.

Still, it's a film that shouldn't be remade...

Scarface was a remake... New Jack City is considered to be an adaptation of Scarface.
 
The remake that got me the angriest was "The Longest Yard," Adam Sandler should be flogged. Burt Reynolds, for appearing in a different role in it you are vanquished to beer commercials, oh wait.

But while were at it, here are a few others that if there is justice in the world the bad karma will end careers:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Depp doing Michael Jackson -ugh
The Omen - cashing in on horror resurgence
Psycho - Vaughn in the lead -HA
Poseidon - no shelly winters, no remake
Bad News Bears - I am getting angry again
Planet of the Apes - actually redeemed itself on the unintentional comedy scale.
 
It'll be a CGI crapfest, for sure.

The only horror in THE FOG was how horrifically BAD it was. It was as if they TRIED to do everything wrong. Just before the "big finale" my sister walked out of the room, saying, "I think I'll just go to bed. This movie has wasted enough of my life." Now, that's pretty damn bad.

I am surprised Michael Bay isn't involved, he seems really interested in remaking movies that shouldn't be remade and doing a sh***y job of it.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, I've seen it and I don't understand what all the fuss is about. And speaking of the SciFi network, weren't they going to make a tv movie sequel to the THE THING. Maybe it'll be a race to see which project comes out first. Kinda like that WILDBOYZ episode I saw with a dung beetle race, where the dung beetles were rolling big balls of...well...dung in a race to the finishing line. Yeah, I think it's going to be a lot like that.
 
Moore is a good writer, and BSG is one of the best shows currently on TV -- but if you don't like sci-fi and/or military drama, it probably isn't your thing.
 
I hate to hear the news, but unfortunately it's a generational thing.

Look at the original compared to Carpenters. i'm sure there were many old-timers that were disgusted....look, now I'm the old-timer. :)
 
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