With any luck, director John Carpenter is taking his flamethrower out of storage as we speak. Or, even better, his synthesizer. Variety has confirmed the director’s involvement in Blumhouse’s reboot of The Thing, which is in “early development.” Of course, Carpenter’s beloved 1982 alien body-horror bonanza was itself a remake that drew from 1951’s The Thing From Another World; both films were based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” Bloody Disgusting had in January announced the project, which is reportedly an adaptation of a longer, slightly different version of the Campbell story, titled “Frozen Hell,” rather than a remake in the strictest sense, but this would be the first time Carpenter’s participation in the project has been confirmed.
On Saturday, the director himself teased the news on a panel for the Fantasia International Film Festival, during which he discussed writing the score for the upcoming Halloween Kills. When asked about talking to Jason Blum’s production house about directing a film, Carpenter replied, “I have? I don’t know about that. 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.” Since almost every film is currently “down the road” at the moment, it sounds like we’ll have to wait and see when a new Thing could even enter production. Which gives John Carpenter plenty of time to start noodling around on those sweet, sweet synths.
