'The Thing' Will Release On October 14, 2011

Good news: after some concern over the fate of Universal's prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing, we've now got an October 14, 2011 release date for the film. The Thing (yep, still a confusing title for a prequel to a film called The Thing) was scheduled for April, but had that date scrapped not long ago. The film had reportedly gone in for reshoots — not always a bad thing, as Edgar Wright will tell you, and as Germain pointed out — and we didn't know when the picture would drop.

But a mid-October date will do nicely for a sci-fi horror prequel to a fan favorite sci-fi horror film, especially since the competition is the Footloose remake and Paul WS Anderson's The Three Musketeers.

Universal has shown footage a couple times, and while I haven't seen it yet the reaction I've had relayed has been quite positive. One friend recently enthused over how accurate the recreation of stuff seen in John Carpenter's film is, so that's a good thing, at least.

To recap, Matthijs van Heijningen directs Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton in a story about the Norwegian research base that digs up an alien ship and the shape-shifting alien that lies dormant within it. With any luck, this will be a fun, tense effects picture to match John Carpenter's film.

[Universal Pictures, via Twitter]