It’s time to travel back to Antarctica as Universal and Blumhouse might be teaming up to produce a remake of John Carpenter’s The Thing, only the remake will be based on the recently surfaced pages of the long lost novel by John W. Campbell Jr. This was first reported by Bloody Disgusting.
For those unaware, Carpenter’s The Thing (and its 1951 predecessor The Thing From Another World) were both based on Campbell Jr’s short novella Who Goes There? It was originally published in the August 1938 issue of Astounding Science Fiction but unfortunately had to be cut down for publication.
Years later in 2018, it was announced that the novel-length version of the classic novella had been found, and a Kickstarter was launched to publish the entire novel, titled Frozen Hell.
According to science fiction writer John Betancourt, who was the one to start the Kickstarter for the novel, “Frozen Hell expands the Thing story dramatically, giving vital backstory and context to an already incredible tale.”
On 28 January, Betancourt posted an update on the Kickstarter campaign, announcing that a film adaptation was in the works.
The movie will be from Universal and Blumhouse. Everyone is super excited about it, and it’s being fast-tracked. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s going on with Who Goes There?, Frozen Hell, and The Thing in Hollywood. I can’t talk about the rest yet, but it’s very exciting — and if all goes as planned, the Thing will be alive and well for quite a while.
From what we’ve seen it seems the remake will be taking a different approach from Carpenter’s classic. Though for now, Universal and Paramount have both yet to confirm that a sequel is taking place, so do take all of this with a grain of salt.