While a cast is yet to be announced, the date is set and the key players are coming together to begin work on the much-anticipated prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing.
Director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (behind the forthcoming Army of the Dead) will be creating his vision from a script by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar TV reboot) and Eric Heisserer (Nightmare on Elm Street remake)... So it's not just the current cold snap that's giving us the shivers.
While much is known about the setting (it had to be that original Norwegian base) and about the location of production (Toronto), little is revealed about the mood of this piece.
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. has barely directed traffic so far, though he has the minimum required background in music video, and the verdict on Eric Heisserer's Elm Street penmanship has yet to be seen, but at least writer Ronald D. Moore is bred from solid TV stock.
Carpenter's cult 1982 classic, itself a remake of 1951s The Thing From Another World , is a masterclass in suspense, creature effects and beards - so the prequel has a lot of work to do.
We will refrain from writing this off just yet - at least until the cast is in place - but this one is giving us the chills so far.
So will this terrible trio live up to expectation? Or will they leave us out in the cold?
