The Fog Star Wishes John Carpenter Asked Him to Be in The Thing ✖ Filmmaker John Carpenter regularly collaborated with a handful of performers throughout the '80s, often asking them to star in a number of his films, but The Fog star Tom Atkins still regrets that the director didn't enlist him to star in his 1982 The Thing remake. In addition to starring in The Fog, Atkins also had roles in Carpenter's Escape from New York and in Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a continuation of the franchise Carpenter co-created, but with the previous adaptation The Thing from Another World being one of his favorite horror films, the actor wished he could have played any of the characters in the ensemble.