I come bearing very exciting news! Yes, this IS what I have been hinting at on Twitter since last week. Mary has been cast as the LEAD ROLE in the new remake/prequal of the Sci-Fi classic, The Thing. She heads back to Toronto next month to begin filming. Congrats Mary!

Winstead will play a Ph.D. candidate who joins a Norwegian research team in Antarctica after it discovers an alien ship in the ice. When a trapped organism is freed and begins a series of attacks, she is forced to team with a blue-collar mercenary helicopter pilot (Edgerton) to stop the rampage.

A March 15 start date in Toronto is planned.

The movie is one of two projects greenlighted by the new Universal administration. The other is “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” which the studio is making with Illumination Entertainment.

The role is a coup for Winstead and marks her first starring studio vehicle. The actress, repped by CAA and Betty Winstead, appeared in a bit part in Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof” and was Bruce Willis’ daughter in “Live Free or Die Hard.” She caught Universal’s eye with her work opposite Michael Cera in the studio’s upcoming “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” where she plays love interest Ramona V. Flowers. Universal is releasing that movie Aug. 13.

Here’s a little info on her character:

[KATE LLOYD] In her late 20s to early 30s, pretty, bright-eyed, intelligent, she’s a graduate of Columbia and a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology (the study of prehistoric life). On the recommendation of her friend Adam Goodman, Kate is tapped for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity by Dr. Sander Halvorson to join his research team in Antarctica, where an extraordinary discovery has been made. Upon arrival, Kate soon finds herself at odds with Halvorson about how best to proceed with the discovery — an alien spaceship with a mysterious and sinister frozen THING found nearby — specifically whether to transfer the specimen undisturbed to a more appropriate facility for analysis, or, per Halvorson’s wishes, to drill into the specimen’s ice encasement for a definitive tissue sample. Kate’s misgivings about her involvement grow when Halvorson ignores her advice and collects his tissue sample — a critical error in judgment that ultimately frees the trapped organism and triggers a series of horrific incidents and attacks. Furthering her sense of isolation, most of the scientists at the site speak Norwegian, a language she doesn’t understand. Kate looks to her friend, Adam, for help stopping Sander’s obsession from getting them all killed, but eventually must take matters of life and death into her own hands. In the end, her only hope  of survival is to join forces with Sam Carter, the chopper pilot who flew her team to the remote Norwegian base…LEAD (2)