In 2004, John Carpenter said in an Empire Magazine interview that he has a story idea for The Thing II, which centers around the two surviving characters, MacReady and Childs. However, Carpenter felt that due to the higher price associated with his fee, Universal Studios will not pursue his storyline. Carpenter indicated that he would be able to secure both Kurt Russell and Keith David for the sequel. In his story, Carpenter would explain the age difference between the two actors by having frostbite on their face due to the elements until rescued. The assumption of the sequel would rely on a radio signal being successfully transmitted by Windows before Blair destroyed the communications room. Thus, after the explosion of the base camp, the rescue team would arrive and find MacReady and Childs still alive. Carpenter has not disclosed any other details.

John Carpenter talks The Thing 2:

John Carpenter told Empire Magazine that he is keen to do a sequel to "The Thing".
I have a great story for Part 2, which kicks off with the two characters left alive at the end of the first one. I’m interested in doing it. Unfortunately, I don’t think Universal is. Well, it’s interested in doing a sequel, but it’s not interested in having me direct it! You know, the studio will end up getting some commercials hotshot to do it, and that’ll be that. I don’t care. I’m certainly not going to beg. These people didn’t even get the original, despite the fact it’s my favourite movie of my own.

THANKS ALOT UNIVERSAL,enjoy watching this movie bomb at the box office!

And do it in Norwegian. By Carpenter. Or the sequel with the two remaining men at the end still facing off (and as Carpenter said once) with frostbite, thereby hiding both actors age w/ makeup.

I would have loved to see Carpenter do this... back in 1984 or something. Too much time has passed for a sequel/prequel/remake/whatever to work. Everyone that resurrects an acclaimed property always talks about how they're "such big fans" and they really "respect the source material", then they give us a big slick pile of shit. This will be no different.

Okay an aged Russell would make sense if they give him the look again but how are we going to explain Keith David's weight gain.

it's called slimming down. That's ez.

At Keith David's age I don't think that's possible.

Just get the guys who deaged Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy (I say as if it were so easy to do).

He's 53. It's possible. He looks good for his age in this pic, it's kinda recentish.

spoilerized cuz of the size not the content.

The second pic released is intriguing.

He looks alright. Typical old man but if he slims down it might look unhealthy and unnatural. Tom Hanks looked unnatural himself in Cast Away.

Wasn't the point that Tom Hanks' character had been wasting away on an island for years? I don't think he was supposed to look like he had been on a sensible 2 lbs a week plan.

Even though it should not be I wonder if

Speaking of The Thing, those few souls stuck in or around Jacksonville, FL -- the 5 points theater (beer/wine/food theater) is showing The Thing, original 35mm presentation, on 5/21.

Yippie? Yeah, yippie.

A little more info, from Shock Till You Drop:

Eric Heissere, one of the writers on The Thing prequel, was grilled about its relation to John Carpenter's The Thing. And I do believe he's told us what we've finally been waiting to hear.

"If we can pull this off, this movie will work perfectly [as] the first half of a double feature. So that the last shot of this film will be two Norwegians and a chopper chasing after a dog. And you can plug in Carpenter's film and they will both feel and look as they have been made around the same time."

I think that's what some of us were wondering, right? How it was going to end. If it was going to end properly... Because if it concluded any other way, many fans were going to balk at the whole idea of doing a prequel. Color me curious.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Jonathan Lloyd Walker star in the film which is filming in Canada under the direction of Matthijs van Heijningen.

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Hmmmm... they keep saying the right things, but I can't possibly believe this will serve as a worthy prequel to THE GREATEST FILM OF ALL TIME.

It's not a prequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I have a feeling most fans of the original remake will shit all over this. It probably won't be that bad on its own, though.

My vote for the title: The Thing, Episode One: The Phantom Menace.

It'd be better if it was in Norwegian. I know that sounds weird but...it'll stick out in the back of my mind. The whole lack of using it considering that we know they're Norwegians

They could use a trick along the lines of Tom Clancy adaptations where they start off speaking with subtitles, then just switch to English with a kind of nod to the audience that they are speaking Norwegian, but for our convenience we are hearing our own language.

True....I've yet to see a Clancy based movie. What other films have done that? I know I've seen others but I can't remember.

Valkyrie

They should have one of the guys invent a universal translator at the beginning of the movie. Problem solved.

Actually, the easy fix is to make one of the characters (most likely Winstead's) American, which forces the other characters to speak English around her.

13th Warrior, Hunt For Red October, Clear and Present Danger

^ Star Trek VI