With a successful Halloween reboot already in the books, with sequels in the works, it was inevitable that Blumhouse would turn to the other major John Carpenter work when they needed their next big remake. Jason Blum‘s studio are once again teaming up with Universal and are reportedly fast-tracking a remake of The Thing into production.
But wait, things are a little more complicated. This may not be the straight remake everyone is expecting. Neither Carpenter’s 1982 film nor the original 1951 version The Thing From Another World were technically the full vision of author John W. Campbell Jr., who wrote the novella both films were based on, Who Goes There?
Why? Because The full vision is Frozen Hell, the novel-length version of Who Goes There? that was only unearthed in 2018. And thus, Universal and Blumhouse reportedly plan to adapt this recently-unearthed novel into a feature film, rather than do a direct remake.
This should be positive news. It would be easy – and pretty lazy – for Blumhouse to just remake The Thing. But even the recent Halloween wasn’t actually a remake despite sharing the name of Carpenter’s classic. So doing it this way, with a different story, gives audiences something different and allows everyone working on the film to not live in the shadow of Carpenter.
We’ll wait to hear more details of what the novel-length version of Who Goes There? actually contains. Also, expect plenty of horror directors to be champing at the bit to get the opportunity to work on this one. Let’s hope it’s better than the last version of The Thing, the awful 2011 prequel that, thankfully, everyone has thoroughly forgotten about.
#Peace.Love.TheThing
