Prequel to John Carpenter's "The Thing" will be true to the original

i09 conducted as interview with Eric Heisserer, the author of the upcoming prequel to The Thing. He goes into a lot of detail about the thought process of how the prequel was drafted, putting to rest some rumors about the story's format. First and foremost, there are no flashbacks. The new film will deal directly the Norwegian camp that first encountered the shapeshifting alien creature and won't be bookended by any post-original Thing moments.

Fans of the original will be excited to learn that original 1982 film was analyzed frame by frame and that very specific details -- down to the placement of blood splatters -- was recreated in a way that it will make perfect sense watching both movies in chronological order. A lot of films don't have continuity that great within themselves, let alone prequels that come along thirty years later. An added bonus to the entire piece, Heisserer revealed that the new Thing will avoid non-practical effects whenever possible.

The new prequel will be produced by the Nordic producer-turned-director Matthijs van Heijningen. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton are pegged to star in the film, which is a nice turn of events considering that both actors are relative unknowns. Joel Edgerton certainly looks Northlander enough to play one of the doomed Norwegian scientists who discover the space parasite and fail to kill it before it heads over to Kurt Russell and the American camp.

No release date has been announced yet, but production began last month. Here's to a long-overdue story that should excite any Thing fan!

160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

(Since most of these are from Sci-Fi movies, it counts - and I thought it was quite fun.)

I wonder how is it that the Governator has never won an Oscar?

Enjoy this video...

Megamind starring Will Ferrell coming in November

Oh, and don't forget in November we will get to see Megamind (formerly Oobermind, formerly Mastermind) voiced by Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill. The real question is... will we see him in his underwear? Here's the "over-the-top" teaser trailer...

What I'm waiting for this summer

Here's a list of the newbies in the Sci-Fi world for the Summer (well, the ones I want to see anyway)...

May 7 – Iron Man 2: With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances -- and confront powerful enemies.

June 4 – Splice: Elsa and Clive, two young rebellious scientists, defy legal and ethical boundaries and forge ahead with a dangerous experiment: splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. Named "Dren", the creature rapidly develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera, who forges a bond with both of her creators - only to have that bond turn deadly.

July 9 – Predators! A bold new chapter in the Predator universe, "Predators" was shot on location under Rodriguez's creative auspices at the filmmaker's Austin-based Troublemaker Studios, and is directed by Nimród Antal. The file stars Adrien Brody as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they've been brought together on an alien planet... as prey. With the exception of a disgraced physician, they are all cold-blooded killers – mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members – human "predators" that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators.

July 16 – Inception: The film is described as a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind from "Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan and centered on a group of business people who can construct a dream world for an individual and then infiltrate that world to steal their subconscious.

August 27 – Piranha 3-D: In Lake Havasu, Arizona, a tremor causes the lake's floor to open, setting free scores of prehistoric piranhas... They’re back! Every year the population of sleepy Lake Havasu explodes from 5,000 to 50,000 for a single, wild weekend - the 4th of July, a riot of sun, drunken fun and sex-crazed mayhem. But this year, there's something more to worry about than hangovers and complaints from local old timers. Havasu sits in the crater formed by a prehistoric volcanic eruption, and when earth tremors tear open a crack in the lake floor, all hell breaks through. Piranhas - a million ravenous, razor-toothed monsters, unchanged since the dawn of time. Unstoppable killing machines acting blindly under one primeval impulse: to hunt down anything that moves and strip it to the raw, bleeding bone. In seconds. (I know, it's not really pure Sci-Fi, but I'm from California and have been to that lake before - gotta see it for that reason alone!)

September 10 – Resident Evil: Afterlife: In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice (Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead - and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

What are you on the edge of your seat for?

Mammoth skyscrapers of stone thundering across the earth!

That's a tagline that gets attention! The Monolith Monsters (1957) by Universal Pictures was one of those early sci-fi films that I always recall with clarity and admiration.

Lola Albright, Grant Williams and Les Tremayne star in the story of a meteorite that crashes to earth scattering it's shards within a valley outside of a sleepy Southwestern desert community. A local geologist finds a fragment of it in a roadway, and not recognizing the mineral takes it back to the laboratory to study. In the morning his partner, Dave Miller (Grant Williams), finds the lab wrecked and the geologist himself petrified. As the mystery unravels it is discovered that when damp, it grows into black, crystal-like shafts which absorb all silica nearby, including that of animals or humans who come in contact with it. Once all silica is absorbed and the monolith grows to its fullest possible height, it becomes dormant. However, it may easily topple, shattering into many fragments which wait to grow into new shafts if they contact water.

The scary thing is that a rainstorm is on the way and once the meteorites receive that much water they can tower to hundreds of feet in height before crashing down - and they are in a valley that spills out right onto the town. How are the residents to survive the terrible onslaught of these Monolith Monsters? You'll have to get it and see!

The movies was filmed primarily on the back lot of Universal City, CA but the exterior shots were from the Alabama Hills in Lone Pine, California right between Kings Canyon National Park and Death Valley National Park.

I recall how I thought it was scary that a rock, when wet, would absorb silica from the human body and effectively turn you to stone by removing the chemical that made skin and tissue flexible. Plus the thought of 500-foot high rocks tumbling over crushing houses like matchboxes was enough to make any 10 year old a bit on edge!

I was able to watch it again recently (it's part of a double-feature DVD with The Incredible Shrinking Man) and I still find it humbling to compare we frail humans to the power of these mammoth killer rocks! You can rent it from Netflix but the DVD is a bit pricey at Amazon.com at $34.95 (it's part of a 10-movie set) but you can get it on eBay for under $10.00.

One thing's for sure - when I do finally finish my basement and have a Viewing Room, this will be one of the posters on the wall!

Smith & Jones signed for MIB:3D

According to Showbiz 411...

Director Barry Sonnenfeld tells me that "Men in Black 3-D" is ready to roll. Will Smith has signed on, Tommy Lee Jones is in, and a script is awaited...Yes. I did say 3D. "Men in Black 3″ will be in 3D. Sonnenfeld says it is so. Why not? Everything else is, and this is one movie that might be cool in the process...Nevertheless, you can bet Sony is juiced to get this puppy moving since "Spider Man 4″ fell apart. They are in desperate need of a blockbuster for next Memorial Day May 2011. And "Men in Black" is like money in the bank.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Alien' Prequel Set 30 Years Before Original, Features A Female Lead, Redesigned Aliens

All the way back in June of last year we heard that plans were gearing up to unleash an "Alien" prequel on the world. Now, almost a full year later, we've got some news from Ridley Scott, creator of the franchise and director of both the first movie and the coming sequel, about what fans can expect.

"It's set in 2085, about 30 years before Sigourney [Weaver's character Ellen Ripley]," the "Robin Hood" director said in an exclusive interview, in advance of next week's summer preview week on MTV.com. "It's fundamentally about going out to find out 'Who the hell was that Space Jockey?' The guy who was sitting in the chair in the alien vehicle -- there was a giant fellow sitting in a seat on what looked to be either a piece of technology or an astronomer's chair. Remember that?" Of course we do, Ridley. Fans have been wondering about that thing for years. It's identity, it's origin, it's relationship with the Xenomorphs. Finally, answers are coming. In addition to "explaining who the space jockeys were," Scott will also explore humanity's expansion into the galaxy.

"[The film] is about the discussion of terraforming -- taking planets and planetoids and balls of earth and trying to terraform, seed them with the possibilities of future life," he explained. The initiative will be led by the Weyland Corporation, an early iteration of the Weyland-Yutani Corp. that causes so many problems throughout the series. "Weyland hasn't joined Yutani yet, so they go and see Weyland," Scott said.

Scott promises a movie experience that won't require past knowledge of the series. Still, the prequel will definitely nod towards a number of motifs that have been established across the life of the franchise, particularly the focus on having a strong female lead.

"Well, the main character [in the prequel] will be a woman, yeah," he revealed. "We're thinking it could go down that route, yeah. When I started the original 'Alien,' Ripley wasn't a woman, it was a guy. During casting, we thought, 'Why don't we make it a woman?'"

Perhaps most interesting is Scott's attitude towards the titular aliens. He thinks of the original designs from artist H.R. Giger as "worn out." It wouldn't be much of an "Alien" prequel if we didn't see the Xenomorphs, but Scott is already giving serious thought to collaborating with Giger again on a redesign.

"Yeah, he's still around. Once I get more serious and get going, and the big wheels start turning, we'll certainly talk. And maybe we'll come up with something completely different."

Sci-Fi in the old west... High Plains Invaders

One of the latest movies I've had the time to sit down and watch was the Sci-Fi Western "High Plains Invaders". Sure, it's one of over 150 SyFy channel original movies, but this one is better than most. The film, set in Avaranth, Colorado in 1892, opens with preparations to hang repentant train robber Sam Danville (played very well by James Marsters). However, before the local Sheriff can comlete the grizzly task the town is beseiged by 10-foot tall quadruped aliens. The resulting chaos allows our train-robber Sam to show he's the real hero and escape the gallows but perhaps only to killed by these outer-space visitors.

It seems the aliens are there to consume the uranium ore that local college-boy Jules Arning (Sebastian Knapp) has been mining and refining from an aparent mother-load of radioactivity beneath the town. Aided by nurse Abigail Pixley (Cindy Sampson) and less-than-convincingly-played bounty hunter Rose Hilridge (Sanny Van Heteren), Sam tries to get the survivors of the initial attack out of town while taking out a few aliens as they go with some dynamite from the general store.

The story is not a bad one, and except for the lack-luster performance by Ms. Van Heteren, it is well acted (for a SyFy film). Shot on location in Bucharest, Romania it surprisingly looks very much like the old west in the United States. The effects are pretty good and the aliens are rendered and inserted much better than other SyFy fare. Director Krisfotter Tabori gets a kudos for pulling it off as well as he did.

Released by RHI Entertainment in 2009, the DVD hit the streets April 9, 2010. You can rent it from Netflix and Blockbuster or purchase it at Amazon.com for under $15.00.

If you a fan of Science Fiction I would definately recommend this one. The "aliens in the old west' theme is a refreshing change from the often high-tech future of the genre.

Debut entry: what is the plan here?

Okay, I finally decided that I'd get into blogging, but with something that I love - Science Fiction movies! I have been a fan of genre for as long as I can remember (no really, some of my earliest memories are of watching particular movies that scared the crap out of me!). I am also an avid collector of the the films (I have over 1,000 of them so far) and have them posted on my home server so I can watch any of them with the click of the Sage remote.

What's a "Sage Remote"? It's just about the coolest thing out there if you're a movie collector like me (no, this is not going to be a commercial, just a testament to the product and an explanation of how I keep my movies 'on-demand'). SageTV has come out with the Sage Media Center, a slick little device that hooks up onto your network and allows you to view just about any .AVI, .MPG, .MKV, .ISO, etc. media file and have it play on your TV. I have one of these in every room in the house - and even in the basement. I can access any of my movies or recorded TV shows stored on my big file server in the basement (30Tb - that's 30,000 gigabytes!).

Since I have access to this growing library, and try to grab every new film I can, I'll start blogging willy-nilly on whatever peaks my interest - then let's see where you readers take me!