Alamy, Getty Images
Rian
Johnson’s
next case
2011
THE THING
This ultimately misjudged prequel to
Carpenter’s fi lm has a few redeeming
features, but never manages to escape
the shadow of its bigger brother; like
the shapeshifting alien, it’s really only
a pale imitation.TBC
THE THING
Horror specialists Blumhouse are developing
a new version of The Thing with Universal.
It will incorporate Frozen Hell, a previously
unpublished novella by John W. Campbell Jr
that expands the original story. Could this be the
best Thing since sliced blood? JOHN NUGENT1982
THE THING
It was a complete fl op at the time, but John
Carpenter’s nail-biter is now rightly considered
one of the greatest sci-fi horrors of all time,
and without doubt the defi nitive Thing.
Contains the most tense petri dish scene
in cinema history.less-than-heavenly working conditions.
“It was absolutely freezing,” says Cassidy.
“The conditions were so tough.” Her toils
included being dunked in a freezing lake for
a baptism scene (“The water was so cold that
you couldn’t catch your breath back”) and
facing off with some surly sheep.
“I was really scared of them,” she admits.
“The sheep wrangler found it so funny.” In
one particularly gruelling scene, she had to
come face-to-face with a horned ram named
Jeff rey. “[The wrangler] was holding it by
a chain,” Cassidy recalls. “I thought I might
lose my forehead.” As tough as it was, she
admits it all “added to the performance”.
As Selah grows more sceptical of the cult,
she connects with a pariah, played by Denise
Gough; on set, Cassidy bonded with the
largely all-female cast, just as her character
did. “There was a massive camaraderie,”
she says. “I mean, we didn’t really have
a choice because we were spending every
day huddled together trying to keep warm.
But we all got on so well.” It’s not hard to
pretend to be part of a family when you’re
already in one, it seems. JOHN NUGENTTHE OTHER LAMB IS IN CINEMAS LATER THIS YEARA NEW TWISTED WEB?
After the success of
the fi rst fi lm, master
detective Benoit Blanc
(Daniel Craig) will return.
But, in true Poirot style,
expect a new setting
for the sequel, and a
fresh set of supporting
characters. “I’ll write the
script, show it to Daniel
and we’ll see what we
see,” he tells Empire.
“It’s a genre that has so
many possibilities. If
you think about the
amount of books that
[Agatha] Christie wrote,
and how she didn’t
repeat herself in terms of
locale and theme, there
are so many variables.”A NEW PROTAGONIST?
Just as Marta (Ana
de Armas) was the
protagonist of the fi rst
fi lm, so the sequel will be
told from the perspective
of a character wrapped
up in the murder, not
the detective himself.
“I’m not sure what one
of these fi lms would
look like if it was told
through the point of view
of the detective,” says
Johnson. “Part of what
makes him work is that
you’re not inside his
head. You’re inside
somebody else’s head,
wondering what’s inside
his head. Blanc is in orbit
around that person.”A NEW ACCENT?
As news of the sequel
emerged, somebody on
Twitter suggested the
following: “Each sequel
to Knives Out should
have Daniel Craig doing
a totally different
accent, which is never
explained.” To which
Johnson replied: “OK,
I’m going to be very
honest right now —
I’ve had that thought.”
But the fi lmmaker tells
Empire that Craig is
unlikely to lose his
Southern drawl. “I don’t
think so,” he says. “I
guess never say never.
But I think that would
be too precious.”A NEW TITLE?
The fi rst fi lm’s title
referred specifi cally
to that case, so
given the entirely
new plot, the sequel’s
title remains wide
open. Johnson has
as yet eliminated no
suspects for his title
choice, but gamely
considers Empire’s
suggestion: ‘Stop!
Or My Blanc Will
Shoot’. “Oh my God,”
he says. “Get Sylvester
Stallone in there —
it writes itself.” This
doughnut hole,
it seems, has a
doughnut hole.
JOHN NUGENTNo./ 15
PREVIEW
A sequel to Knives Out is afoot. Director Rian Johnson speaks
exclusively to Empire about the potential routes it will take