During a recent interview with horror maestro and filmmaking legend John Carpenter, the Halloween director teased that The Thing reboot is in development courtesy of Blumhouse Productions and Jason Blum. After declaring that the 1982 science fiction horror movie classic is the one from his back catalogue that he is most proud of, Carpenter all but confirmed that the reboot is happening, and that he may even be involved.
“I think he’s gonna be working on The Thing… rebooting The Thing. I may be involved with that. Maybe. Down the road.”
You may recall that earlier in the year it was announced that a big screen adaptation of Frozen Hell was in the works. For those unaware, Frozen Hell is the recently unearthed expanded version of John W. Campbell Jr’s novella Who Goes There?, which served as the basis for Carpenter’s The Thing. Published in 1938, Who Goes There? was released as a novella despite Campbell allegedly having enough material for a full novel. Though it was never released, the uncovered works was tracked down in 2018 by John Betancourt, and Kickstarter campaign soon followed, collecting funds to have the novel published.
“In 1938, acclaimed science fiction author John W. Campbell published the novella Who Goes There?, about a team of scientists in Antarctica who discover and are terrorized by a monstrous, shape-shifting alien entity. The story would later be adapted into John Carpenter’s iconic movie The Thing (following an earlier film adaptation in 1951). The published novella was actually an abridged version of Campbell’s original story, called Frozen Hell, which had to be shortened for publication. The Frozen Hell manuscript remained unknown and unpublished for decades, and it was only recently rediscovered.”
Betancourt has since revealed that Blumhouse and Universal have fast tracked production on a new adaptation of The Thing, which will utilize the entirety of Frozen Hell, and this is no doubt what John Carpenter is referring to. There is currently no word on who will helm the project, but Carpenter’s potential involvement is certainly a promising development.
The Thing takes place in remote Antarctica and follows a group of American research scientists who are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. After taking in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they soon discover that this is no dog at all, but a beast that can assume the shape of its victims. It falls on a resourceful helicopter pilot and the camp doctor to lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one.
Starring a gloriously bearded Kurt Russell as the team’s helicopter pilot, R.J. MacReady, alongside A. Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites in supporting roles, The Thing is now considered a sci-fi classic, in large part thanks to the defining practical effects that were used to create the memorably grotesque body horror.
A prequel to The Thing was made in 2011, but sadly it failed to live up to the legend of Carpenter’s isolating masterpiece. Here’s hoping that the reboot does not follow the same fate. This comes to us from Fantasia International Film Festival official YouTube channel.
