THE THING prequel has director!

Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. will direct a follow-up to one of the most suspenseful horror films of all time. \ The news has leaked that he has been hired to helm a prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 classic THE THING for Universal Pictures and Strike Entertainment. Variety confirm the news this morning which first broke at Bloody Disgusting last week. van Heijningen Jr. has helmed commercials for Toyota, Pepsi, Heineken, Bud Light and Visa and was set last year to direct Zack Snyder's zombie movie ARMY OF THE DEAD. It's still expected he will direct Snyder's movie first before moving onto the currently untitled THING movie. BATTLESTAR GALATICA scribe Ron Moore has been writing the script since way back in 2006 and his work is said to borrow 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. The word is the movie will focus on R.J. Macready brother's (Kurt Russell played Macready in the 1982 original) and will of course chronicle how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and killed off the original inhabitants of the camp. They say it's a prequel but God damnit, doesn't the project just sound beat for beat like the original. Wouldn't a sequel (if they HAD to make a new movie in this series) be a lot more interesting? I say, still tons of room for future maneuver.