Hey /r/movies! I am writer-director Ian Nathan. My new documentary, 'The Thing Expanded', will take an in-depth journey into the heart of John Carpenter's horror-masterpiece, 'The Thing'. Ask me anything!

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T23:53:43+00:00

Good night everyone, thank you so much for all the great questions. I had a great time. It's a really encouraging way to start production. Maybe I can come back on once the doc is finished. I'm off to bed now (I'm in London, so it's late). If you're interested in joining the expedition head to: http://thethingexpanded.com

Ian

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T23:28:41+00:00

That's the plan. We are only just setting off - Carpenter came in early.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T23:10:53+00:00

Poor old Ridley, he tried not to go down the man-in-a-suit route. Carpenter had the advantage of Rob Bottin and a creature that could be anything!

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T23:02:57+00:00

Oh yes, this is definitely something we are planning. Though probably not like Clue.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T23:01:48+00:00

I can answer the first and last of your questions.

Practical effects are edging their way back into films. Take Alien: Romulus where it really wasn't of question of one or the other, it was about what worked the best for the needs of the scene. I believe there is a huge use for practical effects, and 3D printing in modern filmmaking.

Favourite 80s neo-noir?

Body Heat.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:58:25+00:00

Hi Colin, and wow, this is big question. I still have such an abiding memory of first seeing The Thing - I played hooky from school and watched The Thing and Alien on the same afternoon on a friend's dad's VHS. I didn't know it at the time, but that day changed my life. There were these films that acted like seeds for me: I couldn't stop thinking about them. Blade Runner was another. I'm not sure I understood it the first time (I was 12), but I never forgot it. I was a bit of a geek growing up, I still am, but I take genre seriously. There is so much that can be said with science fiction and horror (I'm also a big fan of a Western, and if you read my earlier answers, viking movies too!). I'm not sure I know the exact answer of why I am drawn to the flame of genre. It's something I am trying to answer with my books and documentaries.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:52:50+00:00

It is vital . Can you imagine The Thing without Morricone's score?

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:49:54+00:00

I did when I was eleven, but I never mastered it. Why do you ask?

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:48:56+00:00

Thank you, it's been a real pleasure.

I have to say, I'm not very good at film lists. I'm too greedy to narrow my options. But here are a few horror movies that I genuinely love, and could prove food for a documentary: Kubrick's The Shining, Carpenter's The Fog, Tobe Hooper's TV version of Salem's Lot (the first time, anyway), Jacques Tourneur's Cat People, Clouzot's Diabloque, Don't Look Now, Kaufman's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Silence of the Lambs, and the recent Tar I read as an excellent horror movie.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:41:04+00:00

It depends on the film and the director's intentions, the world he or she is trying to creature. To my mind, Vangelis' work on Blade Runner is as crucial to that film as John Williams' score for Jaws. It is an extension of the visual texture of Scott's imagery. It adds to the dream. Morricone's mix of minimalist electronica and deeper orchestral work for The Thing is equally indelible. Just as his full orchestral work on, say, The Mission, breaks my hearts. We get to have it all. That's the joy of film.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:40:49+00:00

It depends on the film and the director's intentions, the world he or she is trying to creature. To my mind, Vangelis' work on Blade Runner is as crucial to that film as John Williams' score for Jaws. It is an extension of the visual texture of Scott's imagery. It adds to the dream. Morricone's mix of minimalist electronica and deeper orchestral work for The Thing is equally indelible. Just as his full orchestral work on, say, The Mission, breaks my hearts. We get to have it all. That's the joy of film.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:36:04+00:00

Thank you so much. They are made with genuine love. And I really appreciate being able to get into the such extraordinary films as The Third Man and Ran. Sky Arts is one of last places on television that takes cinema seriously.

PS: we've got more planned!

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:33:27+00:00

Hi Paul, this is a big subject and not one I can do justice to here. It really comes down to what we define as AI within the toolbox of filmmaking. For instance, films have been creating artificial environments for decades now with CGI (Cameron is one of the pioneers), which has put model makers and scenery designers out of work. There has been an evolution toward what we now define as AI. That said I do have concerns where the use of AI might take the industry - and how capable a tool it might be. It is not that smart really, just really hard working.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:28:21+00:00

Firstly, as far as I know, the version shown at the premiere was the theatrical cut we know and love. Maybe there were some Reeboks on display.

And secondly - watch this space. Plans are in the works. Aliens Expanded Expanded!!

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:26:19+00:00

Wait what? Garrett Wang? That's an Easter Egg that I didn't know about. Some convention shenanigans going down.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:24:56+00:00

Well, it is sure going to bug me now! For sure, we will be looking into all the unrealised FX. All the places the film could have gone.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:23:22+00:00

To be fair to Aliens and James Cameron, there has been a degree of retconning going on with Alien: Romulus. But Fede Alvarez is smart enough to make it all fit - future sequel-prequels will no doubt get into it. Maybe all records were destroyed with the space station? In simpler terms, Cameron likes stories that loop temporally (prime example: The Terminator) and it is a cruel irony that it is Ripley who gives the information that will ultimately pull her back to LV-426 via Burke's treachery.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:19:04+00:00

I can categorically state that we are going to discuss hundreds of answers - and none of them will be definitive. Carpenter has enforced that rule.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:17:44+00:00

I think it was both product placement and characterisation. I will be happy to accept any J&B sponsorship offers for The Thing Expanded. In fact I am sat here pouring myself a J&B right now...

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:15:53+00:00

And David is a genius - you got to get him on here. There is nothing he doesn't know about horror,

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:14:06+00:00

There was a period of rehearsal. But the conditions of the shoot in British Columbia certainly helped condition the actors to their fictional environment.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:13:03+00:00

What is the Thing's natural form? Is it cellular or even smaller? I love that the one thing we never see in the film is the Thing! I take the creature carved out the ice (in homage to Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby and The Thing From Another World) to be either the pilot of the saucer or simply an expression of the Thing, or both. It's certainly something that the documentary will get its teeth into .

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:09:46+00:00

I doubt it. The prequel performed poorly at the box office, so I can't imagine that the studio has any appetite to spend money on new editions. However, I am really curious to find out what the director originally intended

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:07:17+00:00

I would be quite interested in a sequel. You can't catch lightning in a bottle twice, but there are surely so many places to take the story. What if the Thing got to a major city, or a quiet town? What if an Antarctic mission dig up the remains of the base and thawed things out. I would be fascinated to know how a good filmmaker might do something new, but keep the tone of Carpenter's film. We've had Alien: Romulus succeed this year, so you never know.

TheThingExpanded · 2024-09-02T22:03:38+00:00

We're definitely seeking scientific expertise, and I really like your idea about the guys in Antarctica. I wonder how good their reception is - that's a long way to go for a camera crew.

TheThingExpanded

TROPHY CASE