Matthijs van Heijningen to direct The Thing prequel and Army of the Dead, X-Men Origins: Wolverine re-shoot

According to Bloody Disgusting, Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen (The Black Meteor) is now set to helm Strike and Universal’s Prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter Horror movie, The Thing. Carpenter’s film, starring Kurt Russell, was not a box-office hit when it was released the same weekend as Steven Spielberg’s E.T. but, over the years, has built a strong fan base who regard the film as a classic in its genre. While it’s sort of a shame that they never made a sequel with Russell years ago, I hope this director stays focused on strong and interesting actors to star in his new film. The quality of his actors was one of the main reasons Carpenter’s version is so good, alongside its great visual effects. Director Heijningen is also attached to producer Zach Snyder’s epic Zombie film “Army of the Dead”, to be set in Las Vegas. It’s clear this guy must have some real talent to be attached to these two genre projects, as he has no real track record that fans can identify with.

With word coming out Friday that Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie cast and crew are going back in January to film what is being called extensive re-shoots, one has to wonder exactly what that will mean for the final product. While Director, Gavin Hood, will be doing the re-shoots himself it’s been no secret that there had been creative disputes between him and Fox CEO, Tom Rothman, during the movies principal photography. While many blog site writers did cartwheels when the movie trailer was released last month, I had serious reservations. While I like Hugh Jackman, I think making a character with claws coming out of his hands the star of the show is not an easy thing for a writer and director to pull off unless it’s a Freddy Krueger film. It now appears that it needs some major tinkering, which in many instances means trouble for the movie as a whole. Not always, but more times than not.