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Title Designer for John Carpenter's The Thing Looking to Recreate Iconic Visual Once Again
The man isn't asking for much — just a studio, a fish tank, and a camera.
It seems The Thing Expanded isn't the only forthcoming documentary on director John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi/horror masterpiece, The Thing, which recently celebrated its 42nd anniversary. Peter Kuran — who designed the iconic opening title — hopes to recreate the famous visual in a behind-the-scenes "documentary demonstration," for which he is currently raising money on Kickstarter.
"[Over the years], people have asked again and again, 'How did you do that?' I could only somewhat describe what I did because I had never taken any photos or filmed behind the scenes of my process," Kuran explains in the Kickstarter description. "Another group that reverse engineers movie setups tried reproducing the setup for their audience, but it wasn't quite right. In any case, I want to make a short film documenting the setup and photography I used to create the iconic title and how things were done before the computer and CGI."
For more on The Thing:
Kurt Russell and John Carpenter Discussed the Ending of The Thing 'For a Long, Long Time'
John Carpenter Confirms He Knows Who Was Human at the End of 1982's The Thing
The Thing Oral History: The Cast and Crew Reveal Secrets of John Carpenter's Sci-Fi Masterpiece
The Thing Title Designer Hopes to Recreate Effect in "Documentary Demonstration"
As of this writing, the campaign has raised just over $1,200 out of its overall $1,800 goal. "The amount I have asked for here is what I consider to be the bare minimum amount needed to complete the project — stage rental, lights, rent an old Mitchell camera, accessories, and a tank similar to the one I used originally," Kuran says. "Should more be raised, the project can become bigger."
An homage to 1951's The Thing from Another World (also based on John W. Campbell Jr.'s seminal novella, Who Goes There?), the opening title profoundly sets the stage for Carpenter's movie. The way in which the two words seem to violently rip through the screen foreshadows how the shapeshifting alien antagonist takes over its human victims by tearing through their clothes.
Speaking with SYFY WIRE in honor of the film's 40th anniversary in 2022, Kuran revealed that he scored the job over Roger Corman's New World Pictures by significantly underbidding his competitor. If Carpenter did go the Corman route, the title sequence would have been handled by a young, pre-Terminator James Cameron. "I [can] actually say that I beat him out on a job," Kuran proudly said.
The technique of pulling off the effect inside a fish tank was the result of a lesson he'd learned while working on a similar outcome for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. "I used a salt heater and sugar to put together this effect. I did it inside and it just completely smoked out the whole building," Kuran said. "So I learned from that and when I did The Thing, I put it in a tank, so that the smoke was in a tank [and] wouldn't go anywhere further than the tank."
John Carpenter's The Thing — along with its 2011 prequel — is available to own from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
