It appears that Hollywood has run out of ideas again. Variety has learned that Blumhouse Productions is working on a reboot of John Carpenter and Kurt Russell’s classic sci-fi horror film, The Thing (1982), which pitted a group of Arctic research scientists against a parasitic alien that transformed its hosts in grotesque ways.
Luckily, John Carpenter could be involved, so the reboot may not be a total bust. The director was recently asked whether he was working on anything with Blumhouse chief Jason Blum at the Fantasia International Film Festival, and he had this to say:
“I have? I don’t know about that,” Carpenter said. “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.”
If you’ll remember, Universal released a prequel to The Thing back in 2011, which flopped with audiences. Somewhere along its production, the studio demanded that all of the film’s practical effects be replaced with CGI. That didn’t turn out well.