It's been in the works for some time, but The Thing prequel finally has a start-of-shooting date, with production due to begin in Toronto in March and finish in June. Set on the Norweigan Antarctic base glimpsed in John Carpenter's original film, this will see a bunch of Scandinavians having a really bad day thanks to a flesh-eating alien mimic.
No cast's been announced so far, but we do know that the director's Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., who's also been attached to Army of the Dead, the Las Vegas-set zombie movie. Presumably, however, this prequel has now overtaken that film (based on a Zack Snyder idea) on his To Do list. The script was written by Eric Heisserer, of the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, and Ronald D. Moore of TV's mighty Battlestar Galactica - so expect this to pull no punches.
At the very least, this news has got to put today's cold weather in a better light. It may be freezing outside, but at least that keeps the aliens at bay, right?