THE THING

THE THING
From right to left : John, Myself, Production Manager Robert Brown, Associate Producer Larry Franco. The Juneau Ice Field. Location Scout April, 1981

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

THE NORWEGIAN PHOTO






    

                      The identities of the six individuals featured above are, right to left, camera operator Ray Stella, production manager Robert Brown, producer David Foster, and associate producer Larry Franco. On the far left is stunt coordinator Dick Warlock. Second from left is none other than screenwriter Bill Lancaster, making a deserved cameo appearance. Shot several days before filming began by production still photographer Peter Sorel, the original idea as an "in" joke was to feature all the producers, but I was deemed too clean shaven - Bill was having lunch on the lot that day, so we shoved him in instead - I am now awfully glad that we did...
















THE SHADOW ON THE WALL

...










                      ... was intended to be Palmer. At the time of filming  David Clennon's silhouette was considered too distinct, a dead giveaway. Cinematographer Dean Cundey tried to soften the edges to diffuse the image, but in the end John used stunt coordinator Dick Warlock to throw everyone off the scent...


                    The scene as originally written ended with the shadow figure uttering a barely decipherable "Hello, Boy" and the door slamming shut from the inside. Additionally, this is the last piece of an originally much longer sequence that had the dog weaving its way through the radio room, storeroom, kitchen and hallway, methodically surveying the scene. Beautifully shot by John, as seen in one piece it had the effect of establishing the camp geography from a dogs eye point of view. Great stuff, but John felt it slowed the story up and cut it down, with only small pieces used ( The brush against Bennings underneath the rec room table, for instance )...









Sunday, November 20, 2011

THE CAMERA THAT ALMOST WORKED







      Very early in preproduction on THE THING John was searching for unusual techniques to capture the wave motion of, lets say, tentacles and the like. He wanted to be able to vary camera speed by quickly whipping the motor back and forth over a wide range of something like 10 to 300 frames per second ( fast to slow ) by way of a remote box that he would control. In  another example of  tapping resources the studio had on offer, Universal's camera department teamed up with the Panavision Corporation to build an experimental camera with this capability. A special high torque motor was built that could withstand the tremendous swings, but the sticking point became the large, gradated, neutral density filter that was designed to rotate in front of the lens as the speed changed in order to keep exposure constant and prevent telltale white flashes. Several tests were made, and although the effect looked great in small stretches there was always an overexposed frame or two that gave the game away. Finally considered too unreliable for our use the camera was reluctantly abandoned, although I understand it had a brief shelf life in commercials... 




Wednesday, November 2, 2011

CASTING CHILDS

















Ernie Hudson
Geoffrey Holder
Carl Weathers


Isaac Hayes







Bernie Casey
             







                    From my incomplete notes made at the time: John gave some initial consideration to Isaac Hayes, having just worked together in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK ( John also did the same with Lee Van Cleef for the role of Garry ). Geoffrey Holder's availability was checked very early on. Carl Weathers and Bernie Casey met and read, but it was Ernie Hudson who had the inside track until late in the process and was on the way to being cast when we met Keith...









Friday, October 28, 2011

CASTING MacCREADY












               As emblematic as Kurt Russell's performance as MacCready in THE THING has become, his was the last role cast. Early on there were  general discussions about whether we should stay true to the idea of keeping the movie a strictly ensemble piece or lean in the direction of an established star. I think Kurt was always in the back of John's mind but, having worked twice previously together at this stage in their careers both wanted to keep their options open. These general conversations necessarily involved the studio at this point and were only exploratory, with no commitment from either party implied. My notes from the time aren't complete, but they show that availability was checked on the following actors:









Christopher Walken

Jeff Bridges
Sam Shepard
Nick Nolte






Bridges, Nolte and Walken were unavailable or passed without comment very early on. There was the usual initial trouble with the perception that a movie called THE THING could be anything other than a "B" grade sci -fi thriller and it wasn't until actors and agents  actually read the script that they warmed to the idea.We were intrigued with Sam Shepard, whom we were told liked the script but things didn't progress very far and no meeting was held. My notes don't reflect it, but I also seem to remember some early interest in Kris Kristofferson...









John Heard
Ed Harris
Brian Dennehy
Tom Berenger







Jack Thompson
Scott Glenn
Fred Ward
Peter Coyote
Tom Atkins
Tim McIntyre







          These actors met with or read for us for the role of MacCready. John would begin each session with a stern warning about the physical nature of the film and the rigors of working in the cold. Tom Atkins read and was an early favorite of John's when we were thinking solely in terms of  "the group". Others, like Scott Glenn and Ed Harris, met but passed soon thereafter. Both Peter Coyote and Tim McIntyre were openly lukewarm about appearing in a monster movie. Brian Dennehy was initially considered but became for a long while the first choice for Copper (switching like this was not unusual. Richard Masur came in originally for the role of Bennings, but expressed interest in Clark, for example).


               Australian actor Jack Thompson, then currently starring in BREAKER MORANT was a surprisingly strong late contender for MacCready. The film was shown to the studio and he was flown in to read for John in his office, but in the end what seemed to be the best fit and make the most sense was staying with Kurt, a decision no one has regretted since...
  
              John made the decision to cast Kurt on the day we left to film the initial ice field sequences above Juneau in early June, 1981. There he also shot the footage of Mac flying to the Norwegian Camp and the flying saucer ( the helicopter pilot filling in ), an occasion as I think he has pointed out where he filmed the costume before he filmed the actor... 



















  





   

Sunday, October 23, 2011

THE MEN AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT

  








                    When John was asked recently what the men at Outpost 31 did in their jobs he replied  "I don't know" and this is literally the truth. Running away as fast as we could from the usual stereotype of Dedicated Scientists Engaged in Something Bigger than Themselves, it was essential that our group be bored with their garden variety activities and, more importantly, bored and on edge with each other, a process accelerated by the creature's arrival and it's subsequent manipulations ( This as opposed to the usual dynamic of putting aside one's differences and banding together to fight and destroy a common enemy ). More caretakers really than scientists, keeping the men in the same wardrobe throughout the film serves as a physical reminder of that boredom, and also helps to re-enforce the glacial passage of time.







               "... I suggested putting ceilings on all the sets and bringing the pipes into the frame line to heighten the claustrophobia... I suggested using practical lighting to make it look realistic, so we lit whole scenes with just the flares the actors carried... We ended up using color selectively, with " The Thing " it's most colorful object..." Dean Cundey, Starlog magazine, November, 1982

            The anomaly of an all male ( and indeed, mostly middle aged male ) cast was surprisingly not much of an issue at the time. Once we had decided with Bill Lancaster to stay true to the intent of the original novella we were never asked to re-consider ( John was prepared to use THE WILD BUNCH as an example should the issue come up, and I thought about using THE GREAT ESCAPE ). I think now that probably the biggest factor in our favor was that everyone from the studio on down recognized at the outset that Bill's script worked , the characters and their interaction worked, and why mess with something that good ?







                After Bill came back from the Los Angeles Public Library from doing some basic research on Antarctica he asked us a  question:  how accurate do we want to be in our portrayal of Outpost 31 as a functioning research station?  We decided early on  to go to great lengths to protect the large elements that were essential to the telling of this story - the cold ( sets were originally planned to be built inside abandoned ice houses in the Los Angeles area ) and the sense of isolation leading to paranoia - and if we didn't get some of the details right, well... It's no secret flamethrowers, gun racks in hallways, dynamite in storage rooms, and a commander wandering around with a gun on his hip aren't exactly standard operating procedure, but it is pleasing to see that the film is prized now by those who inhabit the Antarctic research community, and is screened yearly at McMurdo on Winter Solstice ( great reading can be had at http://www.bigdeadplace.com/the_thing.html, a special section devoted to the film from people who ought to know... ).


          One additional note : when John went down to the sound stage to look at the finished Outpost 31 interior several day before filming was to begin it was painted a lighter, almost antiseptic hospital green. He immediately ordered it completely repainted with the cooler grey-blue color you see now - a small change making a big cumulative difference...





















THE NORWEGIAN CAMP AND THE POWER OF IMPRESSION





      




                           When I first saw THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD on television in my living room on a hot summer afternoon in the late 1950's, the 16mm print was greyed out, bright sunlight filled the room and I could see no detail  in anything, particularly the creatures face. I realised later this lack of information allowed me to form in my mind my own idea of what THE THING looked like ( a horrible sort of grinning skeleton informed by tons of EC comic books ) which, together with Dimitri Tiompkin' pulse pounding music was enough to send me out of the room, terrified... 













                    With a nod toward Halloween the Norwegian camp as a storytelling device for us was the functional equivalent of a haunted house, a chance to give the audience the impression that the worst kind of hell had broken loose without offering much in the way of specific incident - and have their imagination take it from there...










                 The interior portion occupied the first four the days of production ( to ease the company into shooting mode, with only two principal characters to contend with ) on refrigerated sets in the middle of a white hot San Fernando Valley summer. As filming proceeded John, in characteristic fashion, worked to strip the scene down to its essentials -  a continuing exercise in the elimination of  detail...












                   Bill Lancaster's early drafts had something more of a "spook alley" feel to them, involving incidents with a severed arm caught in a doorway (not filmed) and a partial body hanging upside down in a cabinet ( filmed, thought redundant and not used, although you hear Copper refer to it ). Additionally, Copper was to have found an audio cassette recorder and listen to a small snippet of what would have been the audiences first encounter with the creature ( this was re-written to be included in the videotape review scene, but was ultimately not shot ).







                    After all this was stripped away, what is left to register specifically are three images - the frozen man, the ice block, and the final grotesque discovery outside. We had planned to punctuate the scene with radio static here and there but dropped even that after hearing Morricone's music. The result is a meld of stillness, light, and sound ( knitted together by an ever - present, very even wind ) that is as sensual as it is eerie...


















               " Here's the thing: at that particular time I had unleashed this terrible thing about horror movies with HALLOWEEN. All those imitations came out and threw every possible cliche' up onto the screen - the body in the closet, the thing behind the door, all of that stuff. I suppose I was just trying to get away from all that and make this film better " - John Carpenter, Creative Screenwriting magazine








The frozen man was modelled after veteran mold maker ( and member of Rob Bottin's crew ) GUNNAR FERDINASEN, a Norweigan...









                   The Camp exterior was originally going to be built a quarter mile away from Outpost 31 ( down the hill and to the left of the main set ) requiring a separate road. John, who hated cold, snow, and travel declared that if he was going to be forced to take a snow cat up the mountain for two hours just to get to the location he'd be damned if he take another snow cat down the mountain to get to the Camp...bearing that in mind we figured out a way to shoot the back of the Outpost 31 set a couple of days after we blew it up, and saved $250.000 dollars in the process (most of which went to Rob Bottin).




The remains of the Outpost 31 set shot two days after "the Big Blow"...