THE THING FINALLY SHOWS ITS MANY CGI SELVES IN A RED BAND TRAILER - Page 2

 

See while I understand this take, to me it seems to be undermined by the fact that seemingly 75-90% of the target demographic (ie, not us) have no real familiarity with Carpenters original anyway.

Troll Hunter was all in Norwegian and I enjoyed it just find.

Somehow I don't see Universal dancing a jig about doing Troll Hunter numbers - do you? In fact, how long before we get the big budget US remake of that particular film anyway?

 

God I'm sick of corporate Hollywood.

 

Fuck it, I'm just sick of everything important in the world being branded and sold to the highest bidder. 

Your right about that. There was talk about a US remake of the Host, and that never happened. So hopefully there won't be a Troll remake. While there was a US Let the Right One In, that may have been trying to cash in on Twilight. As far as I know the tweens don't dig trolls.

 

One more thing; I find Ramona's aloofness sexy.

 

I don't buy that. If there wasn't a familarity, the studio would not have wasted their time in making the film. The strongest way to cash in on a prequel-reboot-remake or whatever they are defining it as is to create awareness of it as part of the established brand. I like the Noreweigan idea but if I'm a studio exec, there is no way in a million years, I'd greenlight it because it would never make any money.  

 

 

Is it that really - or has the business model become so entrenched in modern-day Tinsel Town thinking that studios are essentially mining their back catalogues for any past successes - regardless of modern (young target demographic) audiences familiarity with the property or otherwise.

 

How many massive Texas Chainsaw Massacre fans were there among the teen set when that reboot was made? Is there this massive groundswell of teenage fans for the original Fright Night no one told me about?

 

I think you're underestimating the zealot-like approach to following what corporate Hollywood seemingly considers 'best business practice' right now. The fact is many of the bigger name properties have been mined either with reboots, prequels and sequels, and now the studios would rather move onto some of their older, more esoteric successful 'brands' and rejig those than they would take a punt on an original script.

Its Hollywood cannibalism and its having its effects on cinema and the public. Its only a matter of time.

The good news is that the remake trend is proving to be less and less successful. It'll be over soon for the most part.

All it'll take is the next big studio to take a punt on an original mainstream blockbuster and for that film to be a massive hit, and the reboot era will end in an instant.

 

...and please no one try to counter that with JAMES CAMERONS Avatar - thats the perfect example of an exception that proves a rule.

Quote:

 

Its hard to apply that logic to this genre specifically, due to the high volume of horror flicks that come out each year and the relatively low price tag associated with each of them.  'Original' movies like Paranormal Activity or Insidious turn respectable profits, but we haven't really seen them impact remakes.  And in a few years, it'll be time for Saw to be rebooted.  The last string of remakes may have performed poorly, but like I said - there's such a high volume of these movies released that I don't see much changing in the foreseeable future.  

Wonderful post, you've said what I've had on my mind for quite some time now.  I think film lovers are so nostalgic about the 70s filmmaking revolution because the nature of film is more director centric and that's when they had more power.  Today's it's 80-90% corporatized, incredibly unbalanced, with directors merely there as hired hands, apart from the handful with box office clout...but even these guys have taken on a studio mentality for the most part.

 

The only films I get really excited about these days are from filmmakers who fit more into the 70s sensibility than today's microwave culture; PT Anderson, Tarantino, The Coens, Nicholas Winding Refn, Rian Johnson, Nolan, Cronenberg, etc.

 

There's more original horror in the DTV, indie, and foreign markets (where risks can be taken due to low budgets, hungry and creative film-makers, and no one to answer to). You just have to dig a little.

 

Speaking of THE THING's chilly isolated backdrop...

 

Just look at these awesome creature features from the frozen Land of the Midnight Sun:

TROLL HUNTER (Norwegian)

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Swedish)

RARE EXPORTS (Finnish)

THE SUBSTITUTE (Danish)

 

Course, that region also has it's more trite output like COLD PREY (slasher) and DEAD SNOW (zombies).

Honestly, I think that applies to all genres. 

 

You sir,are a very smart individual.

Horror in many ways is its own genre world with its own rules. They've jumped on the reboot bandwagon and run with it more than anyone but you're right, I was more referring to when the next equivalent of something like The Matrix takes the world by storm again that at least blockbuster Hollywood may start taking a chance on original filmic properties again.

 

WARNING: EXPECT SPOILERS OUT THE WAZZOO!!!

 

4 B-Roll videos...

 

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-thing/b-roll-i

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice to see that practicall effects WERE employed...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Graham - 10/2/11 at 3:46am

I'd like to call it Snow White and the Seven Norwegians, with Tentacles. (Give or take one or two Norwegians.)

 

 

slightly more footage in this trailer

 

hmmmm

 

still not pleased with stretchy faced thing.  Too CGI, plus in my backstory it began to twist as it was being fried, not wandered around with half it's fucking face like that.

 

time will tell.

Lets not forget that the Carpenter version of this film was a remake as well. The original was no where as good as he Carpenter version.

I believe that's been sufficiently pointed out. Also, though I criticized some elements of the Howard Hawks original on this very MB a little while ago, it and Carpenter's film are different enough to avoid being compared. Do I personally prefer Carpenter's film? Yeah, sure, but it's a film made for my generation, as Hawks' was for Carpenter's generation, and scared the living shit out of them back in the day.

What's your point? Carpenter's film was a remake, yes, but it was also original, inventive and interesting. All the footage I've seen so far doesn't indicate this new film is any of those things.

The Godfather was an adaptation, and one that is also arguably better than its source material. Yet when the mainstream cinematic output of the last ten years or so is largely nothing but remakes, adaptations, sequels, prequels, etc. it speaks to a much bigger dearth of creativity and originality at hand. So when the latest remake of the week is announced and looks just as cookie-cutter as most other films, I hope you'll forgive us for being cynical.

OK, I've had a bit of a flip flop on this and I'm reasonablly excited.

 

This pleases me (although there's a curious space to it that's not in Carpenter's, Carpenter's felt really claustrophobic but this seems very open) because of the subtitled Norwegian.

 

 

 

and this does (although the cockney being in it pisses me off, it should be all Norwegians dammit) because it adds a bit to the mythos without being offensive.

 

 

time will tell.

I like to imagine that's Vaughn from COMMUNITY and totally expect him to pull off his shirt and start hacky-sacking amidst all the chaos and paranoia.

 

 

"Everyone's my bro, because we're all connected. Sharks, eagles, hats, things from another world..."

I don't know if things have been changed, but I'm pretty sure early reports about the script stated that there indeed will be a decent amount of dialogue spoken in Norwegian................which makes sense given the fact that the majority of the characters have English as a second language (or can't even speak it at all).

 

Care to weigh in, Dark Shape?

I'm actually more interested what the re-shoots entailed...

Can he also say goodbye three times before he dies?

 

"Okay so like, I'm the Thing, better burn me and stuff - g'bye, lates, ciao"

 

Maybe his identity as the Thing could be discovered by him suddenly not having quite as small nipples?

 

 

 

I'm watching too much Community.

I suspect this dude is going to be the guy who slashes his own throat.

 

But I've got absolutely nothing to back that up :)

 

There are actually quite a few clips out there now that focus more on the paranoia aspect of the movie.  Plus there's one really cool monster design that seems lifted straight from Campbell's description.

 

I hate feeling optimistic about movies though, I've been let down too often.

So don't. My expectations on this are basically at zero right now - if it ends up watchable then its a win, if its shit, well, I still have MacReady and co.

 

I'm trying, believe me, I'm trying.

 

On the plus side this new film finally got me off my ass to read the "Who Goes There?" novella so I have that to thank it for.

 

Couple of early positive reviews out.  Apparently lot practical and the CG is to enhance the truly fucked up monsters (Lovecraftian was the description).

Fuck it, I'm bored of being cynical, I'm actually looking forward to this now.

 

And again my unexplained obsession with this prequel has led me to gold:

 

http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com/  A Producer's Guide To The Evolution and Production of JOHN CARPENTER'S THE THING

 

Great, great read.

 

 

some spoilers about the new "thing test"

 

http://ology.com/screen/interview-thing-director-matthijs-van-heijningen-jr