Screenwriter and comic scripter Chuck Pfarrer has produced a very varied output since his arrival in Hollywood several moons ago. In addition to scripting the recent Bruce Willis vehicle THE JACKAL, Pfarrer has been working hard on his own Sci-Fi screenplay, amongst other THINGs. Chuck first came to my attention as the man who spearheaded DARK HORSE Comics sequel to John Carpenter's masterpiece THE THING. His initial two books would make a good case for the film sequel. The ever-busy Pfarrer recently talked to me about his involvement with this tentacle-laden graphic novel.
When did Dark Horse approach you to write a THING comic?
"About 1990, I’d just gotten back from Spain shooting NAVY SEALS. Mike Richardson got to me through my agent. I didn’t know anything about comic books, I never read them as a kid, didn’t read them as an adult and just generally didn’t get them at all. 
Mike said 'Great!You’re exactly the kind of guy we're looking for. I continued to try to talk myself out of being employed. I said, 'I’m a screenwriter- I don’t even know HOW you write a comic.' Then Mike said the magic words... 'We don’t want you to write a comic. We want you to write a movie- a sequel t oJohn Carpenter’s The THING.' Mike then showed me some of John Higgins amazing art. Painted not pen and ink. Beautiful, elegant. It did look like a movie. I said, 'Where do I sign?'"
Did they have the concept that your graphic novel would essentially be acontinuation of the film, or did you offer that?
"They gave me carte blanche. Dark Horse had acquired the rights, period. Mike Richardson is a smart, really creative guy; he did something smart, new and cool with “THE THING”. He hired a writer and let the writer come up with what to do. Almost unheard of in Hollywood, where the producer’s significant other re-writes your pitch! I wrestled with the idea for a couple of weeks, watched the film about 20 times taking notes, writing down who got killed where, who lied, who didn’t, and the contradictions and subplots just all started to pileup. The end of the film presented a riddle I just had to solve."
Did you work from the movie and the script?
"Strictly the movie. I watched and watched. John Higgins did as well. I really think that’s why the THING looks as good as it does. Writing for comics is a lot like screen writing. It takes other talented people to bring the words alive. It isn’t lost on me, after seven movies, that people in Omaha don’t buy my screenplays; People in Omaha go to see the movies that I wrote. Writing may be the seminal craft: the writer is the only person in the movies, or in comics, who faces a blank page and starts from scratch. But in the movies and in the comics, it takes other talents to pull it off. John’s Higgins’ talent brought the typing job alive. Nobody was going to line up to even look at the script to the comic book."
In the later books it was revealed that Childs was contaminated: would you have followed that route?
"No. I would have taken it the other way. MacReady was contaminated. Myu nderling plot for the THINGs was that they don’t just want to get off Antarctica and multiply, each of them. Each of the THINGS, wants to be the ONLY one that gets off. They have an intramural contest going, THING against THING. 
MacReady was the biggest and baddest Human on the ice. He was also the biggest and baddest THING. He hunted down and killed the others. The last words MacReady says after pulling himselffrom the freezing sea give it away. 'The wind... the cold... It’s going to kill me. I can’t let that happen.' As he collapses onto an icefloe, 'I’d better get some sleep...'" Carpenter and Russell have expressed interest in doing a sequel and said they had a story, have you talked with either of them about this?
"No. I’m a complete fan of both these guys. 
I’d LOVE to do another THING project. But it’s never going to happen, at least not with me. The ugly truth in Hollywood is that when a director and a star have a story, they don’t need a writer, they need a poodle. The other important thing that I keep in mind (even if no one else does) movies like the THING are associated strongly with their director. The myth of the “Auteur” is unshakable; the funny thing is most of these Hollywood Auteurs don’t type."
"There’s an archetype in monster movies, it is inviolate, and that is keep the antagonist (the THING) and the protagonist (MacReady) in a rarefied atmosphere- a wilderness. Every great sci-fi movie did that, ALIEN, The THING, PREDATORS. It comes down to archetype and myth... The Minataur and the maze. These movies always have to be a home game for the bad guys and away game for the goodguys. The later books, which took the THING to the Falklands, violated the golden rule. A monster in the suburbs is at an away game. The conflict is diffused, the drama is diffused, the terror is diffused."
If they asked you to write a screenplay based on your THING books, would you do that?
"Now that I’ve put my foot in my mouth, yes-I’d really like to. Now that I said I’d really like to, I probably wouldn’t. The THING is one of the best sci-fi movies ever, scary, cool, literate... The comic book is somewhat of a footnote. I don’t think I’m up to messing with the classic. Hey, but I could change my mind!!!" What did you do to get in the minset to write the THING?
"Nothing. There’s always an alien-infested research station on fire in my mind." Your favorite scene to write?
"The end. I love bad guys who you thought were good guys." If DH asked you to write more THING series, would you?
"No. I think we did what we set out to do. At least in the first two. I was originally supposed to do a longer series. Take the THING up north, but I backed out. There’s an archetype in monster movies, it is inviolate, and that is keep the antagonist (the THING) and the protagonist (MacReady) in a rarefied atmosphere- a wilderness. Every great sci-fi movie did that, ALIEN, The THING, PREDATORS. It comes down to archetype and myth... The Minataur and the maze. These movies always have to be a home game for the bad guys and away game for the goodguys. The later books, which took the THING to the Falklands, violated the golden rule. A monster in the suburbs is at an away game. The conflict is diffused, the drama is diffused, the terror is diffused. The air goes out of your balloon." Did John Higgins art inspire any sequences?
"John and I talked on the phone often. He’d have an idea, and was kind enough to call and ask me what I thought. He is a very talented man, a gentleman, and a great, considerate guy to work with. On top of all that- he comes up with GREAT ideas. There’s John Higgins all over the book. Dark Horse was going to team us to do a Comic Sequel to VIRUS. I said yes, John said yes, and one day the Dark Horse lawyers called us both and said there’s no deal. I love mysteries, but I’m going to let someone else solve that one for me." Do you prefer writing screenplays or comics?
"I love writing. Screen writing is like loving to be tortured. Writing comics is terrific, no one comes in after you and says, cut this, do this. No clown sits on a couch on the tonight show and says: “You know Jay, when I first came up with my character..” Hollywood has built a negative myth in and around writers. A writer works three years on ascript... a guy comes in.... direct from TV.... makes the writer change 400 things... fires him when he says “do you REALLY want to do that?” and then goes on to spend 65 million dollars. The result is NAVY SEALs. Ugh. In screenplays you are forced to swallow brilliant input. Like when a movie star says: “I want to play the young reckless Navy SEAL. “ And you say. “We don’t have any young reckless Navy SEALS. We have some dead reckless Navy SEALs, we have some wild-out-of control, zany guys who never graduated from SEAL school, but we don’t have people like that. “ He plays the character that way anyway. It sucks, It’s predictable. It’s under the top. And who gets blamed? The Auteur/director? The Star? Watch THE TONIGHT SHOW-here’s the quote: “We had alot of trouble with the script.” It makes you want to buy a B-52. I like to write comics. It’s fun. I love to write movies. It’s harder. And when it comes out well, like DARKMAN, it’s the greatest way in the world to make a living." What’s new?
"ALONE, a story about a lone Navy Astronaut marooned on Mars. VillageRoadshow/Warner Brothers shooting next year in Australia. VIRUS, out in January. Best of all, I’m going to be a Dad in December!!! Thanks for talking to me Kim. Write Hard!"