While I have a hard time picking out a single film of all time that I can say is my favorite, I have no problem saying that The Thing is definitely in the top 3.  Chilling, creepy, and tense, John Carpenter’s The Thing is one of those films that everyone keeps saying they want to remake, or make a sequel to, and it has never happened, 27 years after the film’s original release.

Still, they’ve tried, and even came out with a pretty good video game a couple of years ago that managed to continue the film’s storyline satisfactorily for fans.  A couple of years ago, Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights actually did a Thing-themed haunted house that tried to continue the story from the film, even so far as to include likenesses of Kurt Russel and Keith David (the two survivors of the original), shown in stasis pods.

Everyone loves The Thing, so, now, finally, it seems like we might actually get a sequel/prequel/reboot from Ron Moore, the guy behind SciFi’s excellent Battlestar Galactica series.  Of course my vote would be for sequel, as I’d like to see the storyline progress, but any new Thing will hopefully be good for all of us that have been waiting.

A couple of years back, the SciFi Channel had announced a remake of The Thing, a miniseries that they had intended to do that would be executive produced by Frank Darabont.  Never came to pass, unfortunately, but, as it turns out, it wasn’t a remake.  It was a sequel.  The Return of the Thing.  The guys at Corona Coming Attractions got their hands on the script and have given a pretty detailed review of it here.  Check it out see what could have been!  While I’m not sure I like the idea of moving the setting to New Mexico, I can see that having another Thing film set in the snow probably would have felt like a cheat, instead of actually moving the franchise forward.

The script seems to be faithful to the original, with great new touches, and it appears that us longtime fans would have been pleased, even if it was a TV movie.  It’s a shame we’ll never see the story take place in this form, but it’s great that we can read about what could have been!

Purchase the original Thing below!