The first casting news for THE THING, prequel to John Carpenter’s THE THING, has dropped over the weekend thanks to THR’s Heat Vision blog, and boy do the leads pack quite the punch!
FINAL DESTINATION 3 and DEATH PROOF hottie Mary Elisabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton (SMOKIN’ ACES) have signed on to star in THE THING, providing the new sequel’s very first distinction / departure from the original classic: a female lead. Hell, a female period!
One of the distinct features of Carpenter’s THE THING is it’s lack of women–the entire cast is nothing but men, and that doesn’t happened too often. Even PREDATOR threw in a chick (as useless as she was) into the mix. But not THE THING…. Well, the new THING is for a new generation of audience members, and having a chick as the lead is probably a smart move… especially considering how hot (and incredibly cool) Winstead is. Nice!
Here’s what THE THING, to be directed by Matthijs Van Heijningen, is all about: Winstead will play a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When a trapped organism is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage.
I can buy it, yo! As far as Edgerton goes… I have no clue who he is, and that’s A-OK by me. Winstead’s in the house, and that’s all that really matters. Filming starts on March 15th in Toronto.
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