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The Thing: The Musical aka Escape from the Shining Alien Thing from Beyond the Stars



I'll be dropping random bits of trivia about the making of this as they come to mind. I'll use this thread as a notebook until I eventually record an audio commentary or do a making of or a combination of both.

I think one of the main reasons I assembled this is because of the Norris Thing singing gag. To me it was hilarious because it was a reference to Space Balls (1987) in which the singing frog monster was itself a double reference to Alien (1979) and Looney Tunes (1955). Furthermore, the Looney Tunes cartoon "One Froggy Evening" is loosely based on a 1944 Cary Grant film entitled "Once Upon a Time" involving a dancing caterpillar who lives in a small box. Cary Grant plays a conniving showman who desperately needs money to save his theater. The film was based on a 1940 radio play. "My Client Curley", adapted by Norman Corwin from a magazine story by Lucille Fletcher.

But wait, there's more! Alien (1979) was written by Dan O'Bannon who also wrote the John Carpenter directed Dark Star (1974). The "Beachball with Claws" segment of the film was reworked by O'Bannon into "Alien". After witnessing audiences failing to laugh at parts of "Dark Star" which were intended as humorous, O'Bannon commented, "If I can't make them laugh, then maybe I can make them scream."

To me this gag brought the entire project full circle and was my strongest "Everything is a remix" argument.
 
NAULS' DEATH

Eli-Livingston-Mike-Ploog-Nauls-death.jpg


At first my intention for Nauls was to recreate his intended death from Mike Ploog's skeches. I nearly got my hands on the sculpt you see pictured above (very talented sculptor and all around nice guy who actually worked with HR Giger) and almost fooled myself into thinking I'd 3D scan it and animate it through CGI. Of course I dropped the idea because although I wanted my project to restore what Carpenter had originally intended, I couldn't bring myself to use CGI. I thought of doing stop motion but considering Carpenter removed all but one stop motion shot in the movie, it wasn't a solution either.

Then I thought it could be interesting to have only the black members of Outpost 31 survive because it's my edit and I can do what I want. So I tried to reach out to T.K. Carter, the actor who plays Nauls, through Twitter. I thought I could sell him my concept and convince him to record a few new lines for me but then he asked for money. A LOT of money. So I decided this sealed his fate and that I'd have to kill him. The character in the movie. Not the actor. Killing is wrong. Had Nauls survived I'd have probably used his part in Sky Patrol (1990) as a mid-credits scene.


cool fonts alphabet copy and paste

My solution is not perfect but it did the trick, I think. I played back and forth with perspective when Nauls disappears into the dark never to be seen again. I wanted to kill him with an Alien or a Predator and I couldn't find a solution and at one point I had visual effects planned but I tried to stay away from those as much as possible. But I was stuck because I didn't have any other action / reaction shots of Nauls to use except from earlier when he comes back to the camp after cutting MacReady's line. When Nauls is kneeling out of exhaustion, he looks in pain but I couldn't use it because Childs is partly in frame and the door behind Nauls is much too recognizable and it would break the illusion.

Except perhaps if I zoomed in? And changed the color balance to night?

After struggling a few weeks on that sequence I found my answer in my 4K copy of the movie. Zoom, color adjustement and camera shake test was conclusive and I decided this was a satisfying enough end for Nauls. Sorry T.K. Carter, you should have said yes.

 
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Just finished my viewing of this edit. I left you an official review but here is the transcript:

"Where to even begin?

This edit feels almost grindhouse. This is a post-grindhouse horror comedy.
The edit is well worth your while. I love The Thing. It is one of my favourite films of all time. If you love The Thing, this edit doesn't ruin it. If you think the The Thing is too goofy, this edit plays all that up. So it works for everyone I think. The edit embraces the fact that it's an edit, using that to it's advantage in so many hilarious ways. Even reused footage is used in an almost 4th-wall-breaking way. The edit knows it is reusing footage and makes it funny.

The editor was able to blend in shots from other films like the Preditor, some Alien Xenos and Facehuggers. Even some Requiem for a Dream! The Jaws theme plays for first person shots. ET is running around in the snow too. Absolutely hysterical.

You pretty much always know who The Thing is and you laugh rather than cringe in horror. The editor clearly knows how to make a joke and does so continually throughout the edit in many elaborate and eloquent ways. I was laughing so much during this.

This fanedit flips all the mystery and turns The Thing into an intentionally goofy, Saturday afternoon schlockfest, in all the best ways."
 
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gotta get my cholesterol levels all straightened out now of course!
 
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