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Published Feb 1, 2026, 8:01 AM EST
Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock.
Bill Lancaster is best known for writing The Thing, but he also wrote a different classic movie that couldn’t be more different from that chilling sci-fi mystery. Lancaster is the son of Hollywood royalty Burt Lancaster, a screen legend and four-time Best Actor nominee (and one-time winner), ranked the 19th greatest movie star in American cinema by the AFI.
The younger Lancaster has a cinematic legacy of his own. He played bit parts in the TV shows The Big Valley and Moses the Lawgiver before playing a more substantial part in the neo-noir The Midnight Man, directed by his father. But Lancaster is more known for his screenwriting work than his acting roles.
Bill Lancaster Wrote Both The Thing & The Bad News Bears
In the span of six years, Lancaster wrote the haunting sci-fi mystery The Thing for John Carpenter and the wacky baseball comedy The Bad News Bears for Michael Ritchie. He wrote one movie about an alien parasite assimilating a band of scientists in chilly Antarctica, and another movie about a fledgling youth baseball team in sun-drenched Southern California.
These two movies couldn’t be more different — one is terrifying, the other is lighthearted; one is disturbing, the other is hilarious — and yet they came from the same mind. The one thing tying them together is their incredible character work. Both movies are carried by a rich, well-defined ensemble of lovable, three-dimensional characters. That’s Lancaster’s biggest strength as a writer.
Being Able To Switch Between Different Genres Is The Mark Of A Truly Great Storyteller
The ability to switch between different genres and tones is the mark of a truly great storyteller. As an artist, it’s easy to settle into a familiar niche. You figure out one thing you’re good at, and then stick with that one thing. But the best artists branch out and experiment and try new things.
Cormac McCarthy branched out from his usual westerns to tell a post-apocalyptic story. After a trio of crime films, Quentin Tarantino tried his hand at everything from a war movie to a spaghetti western to a hangout comedy set in ‘60s Los Angeles. The late, great Rob Reiner put his stamp on every genre under the sun: mockumentary, romcom, coming-of-age, fantasy adventure, courtroom drama, psychological thriller.
After the success of The Bad News Bears, Lancaster could’ve settled into a comfortable career writing zany comedies (and he almost did; he wrote the third movie, The Bad News Bears Go to Japan, in 1978). But instead, he broadened his horizons and wrote a new adaptation of Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, Jr. — and it became The Thing, one of the scariest movies ever made.
English (US) ·