L.N. Native Works on Prequel of 'The Thing' Horror Flick

The Thing is back and Laguna Niguel native, Kevin Slee, says the prequel of the classic horror film has some real substance this time around.

The movie produced by Universal Studios and produced by David Foster tells the tale of an ill-fated Norwegian research camp that dug up a shapeshifting alien something in the permafrost of Antarctica, as seen in the early scenes of John Carpenter’s movie. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Eric Christian Olsen, Joel Edgerton, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ulrich Thomsen, Kim Bubbs, Trond Espen Seim, Stig Henrik Hoff, Jonathan Walker, and Carsten Bjørnlund and was directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., according to the film's official website at thethingmovie.net

Slee, 21, who has made a few films on his own with Laguna Niguel as a backdrop, seems to be making it in Hollywood. He began at Foster's company as an assistant but has since morphed into a creative executive role over the past year.

Still a student at Chapman with just a few classes to go before graduation, he he says this prequel to The Thing has some "real substance."

"It's not a horror film that relies on gore but one that relies more on the tension of the characters. Most of the horror films today seem to be missing character development and we never get to know the characters. This film is dfferent."

He actually worked on The Thing last summer, and atteded the premier in Hollywood earlier this week. He is already working on other projects like a remake of Short Circuit in the role of associate producer. He is also working with Bad Hat Harry Productions, Bryan Singer's company (Director: X-Men, The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns) the same company the produces such TV shows as House on Fox.

"The Thing is the first studio feature I had a part in and it's pretty exciting," he said."It was cool to go back to a film that is 30 years old that David produced in 1982 that starred Kurt Russell and do a prequel that has a budget of $35 million. Most of the features that I have worked on have been independent films with budgets closer to $300,000.

Here are some more interesting things about Slee's involvment with The Thing!:

Laguna Niguel Patch: How did you get involved with The Thing and famed producer David Foster?

Kevin Slee: Well, I began working for David Foster as an assistant a couple years ago and one of the projects in development was the prequel to The Thing!. They had been trying to get something off the ground as either a remake or prequel, and this seemed like a good fit. We began developing the project with Strike Entertainment and Universal and got a greenlight on the film. After that, we cast Joel Edgerton and Mary Elizabeth Winstead and came up with a solid prequel to the 1982 version.

Patch: How excited are you about this film?

Slee: Very! I am a huge fan of the Jon Carpenter/Foster version and it was great fun to work on a prequel some 30 years later. The film is very well done, and the acting is great.

Patch: What else are you working on?

Slee: Currently, I have a pilot that I am developing as well as a slate of features -- some projects are with David Foster Productions and others are with Artistic Analogies Film Co. I am also in pre-production on a short I'm directing and we shoot this December.

Patch: Any interesting factoids about the film you can share?

Slee: Believe it or not, most of this film, set in the wide expanse of Antarctica, was filmed on a stage in Toronto. There was about o week or two of shooting on location in Canada, but about 85 percent of the film was shot on a large sound stage.

The other executive producer I work with, and who was partnered with Foster and who co-produced the original, is producer Larry Turman who produced The Graduate, for which he won the Oscar.

With the Carpenter version, many of the effects were done in camera, or practically. Naturally, with this version, we went with CGI for most of the film.

Today, I will be live on Combat Radio for an interview: http://www.combatradio.net/'