Universal bringing back 'The Thing'

Van Heijningen to direct horror film

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Film will use the same source material as John Carpenter's 1982 film (above) and the 1951 original.

Universal will add a new chapter to "The Thing," lining up another take on the paranoid horror classic most recently brought to the screen by John Carpenter in 1982.

Studio has set "Battlestar Galactica" exec producer Ron Moore to write the script and commercials director Matthijs Van Heijningen to direct the re-imagining.

New project borrows heavily from the John W. Campbell Jr. short story "Who Goes There," the basis of the Carpenter film and 1951 Howard Hawks original "The Thing From Another World."

It is set in a Norwegian camp and chronicles how the shape-shifting alien was first discovered and overcame the inhabitants of that camp. Strike Entertainment's Eric Newman and Marc Abraham are producing. David Foster will be exec producer.

Van Heijningen has shot blurbs for brands including Toyota, Pepsi, Heineken, Bud Light and Visa. He is also developing "Army of the Dead" at Warner Bros. with producer Zack Snyder, who also crossed from commercials to features by directing the Strike-produced "Dawn of the Dead" remake.