Even though he hasn’t made a feature-length movie since 2010’s The Ward, John Carpenter is still a living legend of the horror genre, having been responsible for some of the greatest and most influential titles seen over the last 40 years. These days, though, you’re more likely to hear about one of the 72 year-old’s classics being remade or rebooted than rumors of the man himself making a comeback behind the camera.
Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog and The Thing have already been remade while Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China and They Live are all rumored to be getting a similar treatment. Then there’s Halloween, which went on to spawn a long-running franchise that’s still going strong today thanks to the acclaimed 2018 reboot, with Carpenter remaining heavily involved as executive producer and composer.
It was reported earlier this year that Blumhouse were developing another remake of The Thing, with the latest version set to be a more faithful adaptation of the original 1938 novella Who Goes There?, which is going to incorporate recently-discovered new chapters that were thought lost to the sands of time. In a recent interview discussing potential collaborations with Jason Blum, the Christine director hinted that he could eventually become involved in the project in some fashion, saying:
“I think he’s gonna be working on The Thing, rebooting The Thing. I may be involved with that. Maybe. Down the road.”
Carpenter’s take on the material resulted in one of the greatest horror movies of all-time, and marked the second big screen version of the novella after 1951’s The Thing from Another World. The 2011 prequel/remake hybrid was nothing short of terrible and bombed at the box office for good measure, but given their consistent track record of success in the horror genre, there’s every chance that Blumhouse are capable of mounting a reboot of The Thing that’s more than just another cynical cash grab.