According to Heat Vision Blog, Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Grindhouse) and Joel Edgerton (Attack of the Clones) are set to star in the latest incarnation of The Thing, Universal’s take on “the shape-shifting alien who terrorizes a group of people in a remote facility.” Oh yeah, that one.

Winstead will play a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship frozen in the ice. When a trapped organism is freed and begins to kill, she is forced to team with a mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage. Matthijs Van Heijningen is directing the movie, which was written by Ronald D. Moore and Eric Heisserer.

Sadly, Van Heijningen has never directed a big budget feature film before, so he’s probably the best choice for this one. Yes, that was sarcasm.

The Thing has, of course, been made into a film at least twice before. The best (and best-known) of these is probably the John Carpenter version from 1982 which featured Kurt Russell as the titular “mercenary helicopter pilot.” That film was a contemporary remake of 1951’s The Thing From Another World, directed by Howard Hawks and featuring pre-Gunsmoke James Arness as the creature.

A March 15 start date in Toronto is planned with a very short theatrical run and swift trip to your local video store probably soon to follow.

Those who had the dedication to sit through nearly 4 hours of film in the theater when Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse hit cinemas worldwide are tough. Not for the four-hour film stint, but because they managed to sit through Death Proof without tearing out their eyes.

Thankfully, we all had a selection of great, fake trailers in between the films to keep us entertained. Trailers directed by names like Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, and Edgar Wright, which are all still rumored to be in the works as real films. We all know that Rodriguez’s Machete is being planned, and almost ready to start.

After seeing those trailers, it was only a matter of time before the YouTube generation got their hands on some fun footage, and made it look like a Grindhouse film. What better film than something as depressing and cheap-looking as Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler.

Check out the masterpiece after the jump. Also, be sure to check out all of our other Fan Film Friday links while you’re at it.

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This weekend was a pretty big one for the box office, though only making just over $100 million with the top ten. This marked the biggest opening weekend for one of Hollywood’s most celebrated writer/directors in Quentin Tarantino, as his latest film Inglourious Basterds brought in an estimated $37 million in the domestic box office, while bringing in $27 million overseas.

This certainly goes down as the biggest opening weekend for Tarantino, with the runner ups being Kill BIll Volume 2 back in 2004 bringing in $25 million and 2003’s Kill BIll Volume 1 grossing $22 million in the opening weekend. While the former hit theaters over five years go, Tarantino’s 2007 film Grindhouse only brought in $11 million in the first weekend, and a total box office gross of $25 million.

Basterds not only marks Tarantino’s biggest opening weekend in the box office, but also the biggest production budget that he has worked with at $70 million. Grindhouse being his second biggest with $67 million, the film only grossed $25, which barely made a dent. Basterds, however, has already made an estimated $64 million, which means this film will be turning a profit in a matter of days.

Elsewhere in the box office, last week’s hit District 9 only had a 49% drop from $37 million to an estimated $19. G.I. Joe is still hanging on to the top three spot with $12.5 million, with The Time Traveler’s Wife and Julie and Julia following closely behind. Tarantino’s often-partner Robert Rodriguez’s film Shorts, did not–however–follow in his friend’s trend. The film opened with only $6.6 million.

With the casting and production of Machete being all the rage lately, another film based on a Grindhouse trailer seems to have fallen through the cracks: Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving. Roth has taken a break from directing for a little while during his role as the “Bear Jew” in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, but now that time has passed, it’s time for Roth to warm the director’s chair once again.

In an interview with Sci-Fi (Not SyFy) Wire, Roth explained how he would love to work on a franchise for Thanksgiving, but may first dabble in a PG-13 film.

“[I should] make a PG-13 movie so that I’m like, ‘Aw, man, I wish I could kill more people,’” Roth said. “Then let Thanksgiving just be a bloodletting…. “Now I’m kind of thinking maybe I should make like 20 Thanksgivings in a row, just shoot them all and just release them out of order,” Roth continued. “Like, do Thanksgiving 7, then Thanksgiving 4, then 5 and 6 in the theater. People’d be like, ‘Why did 7 come out already?’ It’s like, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a bunch of people getting chopped up anyways. Who cares?’”

Sadly, these ramblings sound like Roth may have spent a little too much time with QT on the set. But either way, releasing a series of films out of order to confuse the audience does sound like a fun idea. Other films that Roth has in the hopper are supposedly Trailer Trash, which is a feature-length film made up of Grindhouse like trailers, and an adaptation of Stephen King’s Cell. You can currently see the “Bear Jew” in theaters now.

Also, check out the NSFW trailer for Thanksgiving that started it all below.

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It’s interesting how much money is made that stemmed from jokes. 2006’s Snakes on a Plane generated $62 million dollars in the theater, not to mention merchandising and DVD sales, and the film all started with spoofed Photoshop image. It looks like the next Snakes will be Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, starring his cousin Danny Trejo.

The film started off as a mock trailer (which you can check out after the jump) for Rodriguez and Tarantino’s Grindhouse film back in 2007. There was talk about doing an entire film of spoof trailers, among many other pipe dreams. Rodriguez then mentioned that he wanted to turn the 2-minute trailer into a feature-length film, and here we are.

News just came in yesterday that the film has gotten it’s cast, and it looks to be pretty impressive, given that the film all started with a joke. Now signed on to do next year’s Machete alongside star Danny Trejo is Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Cheech Marin, Jonah Hill, Don Johnson and Jeff Fahey.

This almost seems like a joke itself, pulling in names like De Niro, Seagal, and Lohan in the same picture, but the story seems to be legit. Some of those name’s aren’t foreign to a Rodriguez pictures but Nash Bridges? The Lawnmower Man? Jonah Hill??

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