Blumhouse To Reboot 'The Thing' With John Carpenter Involved
John Carpenter is getting behind another Blumhouse reboot of one of his horror classics. After Blumhouse knocked it out of the park with its Halloween revival, the beloved horror studio is now tackling a reboot of The Thing, Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi horror film based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There? Carpenter confirmed he is "involved" with The Thing reboot, which is still in very early stages at Blumhouse Productions.Variety confirmed that Blumhouse Productions and John Carpenter are developing a reboot of The Thing, following Carpenter's announcement of the project at a panel during the Fantasia International Film Festival. The project is still in very early stages, with no other details hammered out.
Carpenter first revealed the news during a virtual panel held Saturday at the genre film festival Fantasia Fest, where he spoke about the upcoming Halloween Kills, the highly anticipated sequel to the acclaimed 2018 reboot of Halloween. During the Q&A portion of the interview, Carpenter was asked if he had talked with Blumhouse chief Jason Blum about directing any projects himself. While Carpenter shut down getting behind the camera for a Blumhouse film, he did drop the surprise reveal of The Thing reboot.
"But we've talked about — I think he's going to be working on 'The Thing,' rebooting 'The Thing.' I'm involved with that, maybe. Down the road."
Carpenter wouldn't go into detail about whether the project would be a prequel, sequel, or remake. But considering Blumhouse's success with soft-rebooting Halloween — bringing back original star Jamie Lee Curtis while introducing a new generation of leads to continue the fight against Michael Myers — it would not be surprising if they went a similar route with The Thing.
The thing about The Thing, however, is that it's a pretty self-contained story. The narrative follows an Antarctic research team that are attacked by a parasitic alien life form with the ability to assume the shape of its victims. Based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell Jr., the story has been adapted several times — first with the 1951 film The Thing From Another World, then with Carpenter's 1982 cult classic starring Kurt Russell and Keith David, then with a 2011 prequel by the same name starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton and directed by Matthijs van Heijningen (though notably, that entry was made without Carpenter's involvement).
It's unknown whether Russell or David would return to star in The Thing reboot, or whether the Halloween approach is the path Blumhouse would take with this property. But Carpenter's involvement bodes well for the project, especially after the critical and commercial success of 2018's Halloween. Halloween Kills, produced by Blumhouse and directed by David Gorden Green, was recently pushed back to 2021 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.