AngularJs - modal window w/ajax loading

I'm trying to enable a modal window pop up for elements on an application that displays more information (including things like comments etc) using ui.bootstrap (http://angular-ui.github.io/bootstrap/#/modal). The element is being loaded as a directive on the page, and I think i'm running into an issue with nested scopes, however it appears as though the modal window is triggering, but nothing is appearing (the screen fades).

My directive looks like this:

    .directive('artifactCause', function() {
        return {
            restrict: 'E',
            replace: true,
            scope: {
                thing: '=thing'
            },
            templateUrl: 'views/directives/artifact-cause.html',
            controller: function($scope, $element, $attrs, $modal) {
                console.log('clicked');
                $scope.open = function() {

                    var modalInstance = $modal.open({
                        backdrop: true,
                        keyboard: true,
                        controller: 'artifactModalCtrl',
                        templateUrl: 'views/directives/modal-artifact.html',
                        scope: $scope,
                        resolve: {
                            thing: function () {
                                return $scope.thing.cause_id;
                            }
                        }
                    });

                };
            }
        };
    });

and the artifactModealCtrl controller looks like this:

.controller('artifactModalCtrl', function($scope, $http, loggedStatus, thing) {
        var token = loggedStatus.token();
        $scope.close = function(result) {
            dialog.close(result);
        };

        $http.get( REQUEST_URL + '/Artifact/ArtifactDetail?token=' + token + '&artifact_id=' + thing ).
            success(function(data) {
                console.log(data);
                $scope.thing = data.response;
                return data.response;
            }).
            error(function(data) {
                console.log('Error');
                console.log(data);
            });
    })

I know that the data i'm receiving from my ajax call is successful as I can log it to the console. Any insight or pointers in the right direction would be muchly appreciated.