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Larry Franco, and writer Bill Lancaster , along with other members of the |
crew, make a cameo appearance in a recovered photograph of the Norwegian team. |
[13] Camera operator Ray Stella stood in for the shots where needles were used |
to take blood, telling Carpenter that he could do it all day. Franco also |
played the Norwegian wielding a rifle and hanging out of the helicopter during |
the opening sequence. [14] [9] Stunt Coordinator Dick Warlock also made a |
number of cameos in the film, most notably in an off-screen appearance as the |
shadow on the wall during the scene where the Dog-Thing enters one of the |
researcher's living quarters. [15] Clennon was originally intended to be in |
the scene, but due to his shadow being easily identifiable Carpenter decided |
to use Warlock instead. [16] Warlock also played Palmer-Thing and stood in for |
Brimley in a few scenes that involved Blair. [17] Production [ edit ] |
Development [ edit ] Director John Carpenter in 2010 Development of the film |
began in the mid-1970s when David Foster and fellow producer Lawrence Turman |
suggested to Universal Pictures an adaptation of the 1938 John W. Campbell |
novella Who Goes There? . It had been loosely adapted once before in Howard |
Hawks 's and Christian Nyby 's 1951 film The Thing from Another World , but |
Foster and Turman wanted to develop a project that stuck more closely to the |
source material. Screenwriters Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins held the rights |
to make an adaptation, but passed on the opportunity to make a new film, so |
Universal obtained the rights from them. [11] [18] In 1976, Wilbur Stark had |
purchased the remake rights to 23 RKO Pictures films, including The Thing from |
Another World , from three Wall Street financiers who did not know what to do |
with them, in exchange for a return when the films were produced. [19] |
Universal in turn acquired the rights to remake the film from Stark, resulting |
in him being given an executive producer credit on all print advertisements, |
posters, television commercials, and studio press material. [20] John |
Carpenter was first approached about the project in 1976 by co-producer and |
friend Stuart Cohen, [21] but Carpenter was mainly an independent film |
director, so Universal chose The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) director Tobe |
Hooper as they already had him under contract. The producers were ultimately |
unhappy with Hooper and his writing partner Kim Henkel 's concept. After |
several more failed pitches by different writers, and attempts to bring on |
other directors, such as John Landis , the project was put on hold. Even so, |
the success of Ridley Scott 's 1979 science fiction horror film Alien helped |
revitalize the project, at which point Carpenter became loosely attached |
following his success with his influential slasher film Halloween (1978). [11] |
[22] Carpenter was reluctant to join the project, for he thought Hawks's |
adaptation would be difficult to surpass, although he considered the film's |
monster to be unnotable. Cohen suggested that he read the original novella. |
Carpenter found the "creepiness" of the imitations conducted by the creature, |
and the questions it raised, interesting. He drew parallels between the |
novella and Agatha Christie 's mystery novel And Then There Were None (1939), |
and noted that the story of Who Goes There? was "timely" for him, meaning he |
could make it "true to [his] day" as Hawks had in his time. [23] Carpenter, a |
fan of Hawks's adaptation, paid homage to it in Halloween , and he watched The |
Thing from Another World several times for inspiration before filming began. |
[24] [25] Carpenter and cinematographer Dean Cundey first worked together on |
Halloween , and The Thing was their first big-budget project for a major film |
studio . [25] After securing the writer and crew, the film was stalled again |
when Carpenter nearly quit, believing that a passion project of his, El Diablo |
(1990), was on the verge of being made by EMI Films . The producers discussed |
various replacements including Walter Hill , Sam Peckinpah and Michael Ritchie |
, but the development of El Diablo was not as imminent as Carpenter believed, |
and he remained with The Thing . [11] Universal initially set a budget of $10 |
million, with $200,000 for "creature effects", which at the time was more than |
the studio had ever allocated to a monster film. Filming was scheduled to be |
completed within 98 days. Universal's production studios estimated that it |
would require at least $17 million before marketing and other costs, as the |
plan involved more set construction, including external sets and a large set |
piece for the original scripted death of Bennings, which was estimated to cost |
$1.5 million alone. As storyboarding and designs were finalized, the crew |
estimated they would need at least $750,000 for creature effects, a figure |
Universal executives agreed to after seeing the number of workers employed |
under Rob Bottin , the special make-up effects designer. Larry Franco was |
responsible for making the budget work for the film; he cut the filming |
schedule by a third, eliminated the exterior sets for on-site shooting, and |
removed Bennings's more extravagant death scene. Cohen suggested reusing the |
destroyed American camp as the ruined Norwegian camp, saving a further |
$250,000. When filming began in August, The Thing had a budget of $11.4 |
million, and indirect costs brought it to $14 million. [26] The effects budget |
ran over, eventually totaling $1.5 million, forcing the elimination of some |
scenes, including Nauls's confrontation of a creature dubbed the "box Thing". |
[26] [12] By the end of production, Carpenter had to make a personal appeal to |
executive Ned Tanen for $100,000 to complete a simplified version of the |
Blair-Thing. [26] The final cost was $12.4 million, and overhead costs brought |
it to $15 million. [26] [12] [b] Writing [ edit ] Writer Bill Lancaster in |
1967 Several writers developed drafts for The Thing before Carpenter became |
involved, including Logan's Run (1967) writer William F. Nolan , novelist |
David Wiltse , and Hooper and Henkel, whose draft was set at least partially |
underwater, and which Cohen described as a Moby-Dick -like story in which "The |
Captain" did battle with a large, non-shapeshifting creature. [11] As |
Carpenter said in a 2014 interview, "they were just trying to make it work". |
[27] The writers left before Carpenter joined the project. [27] [28] [29] He |
said the scripts were "awful", as they changed the story into something it was |
not, and ignored the chameleon-like aspect of the Thing. [21] Carpenter did |
not want to write the project himself, after recently completing work on |
Escape from New York (1981), and having struggled to complete a screenplay for |
The Philadelphia Experiment (1984). He was wary of taking on writing duties, |
preferring to let someone else do it. [23] Once Carpenter was confirmed as the |
director, several writers were asked to script The Thing , including Richard |
Matheson , Nigel Kneale , and Deric Washburn . [11] Bill Lancaster initially |
met with Turman, Foster and Cohen in 1977, but he was given the impression |
that they wanted to closely replicate The Thing from Another World , and he |
did not want to remake the film. [30] In August 1979, Lancaster was contacted |
again. By this time he had read the original Who Goes There? novella, and |
Carpenter had become involved in the project. [30] Lancaster was hired to |
write the script after describing his vision for the film, and his intention |
to stick closely to the original story, to Carpenter, who was a fan of |
Lancaster's work on The Bad News Bears (1976). [23] [30] [29] Lancaster |
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