John Carpenter is developing 'The Thing' reboot at Blumhouse

Legendary director John Carpenter is in the early stages of developing a reboot of The Thing, his seminal 1982 Kurt Russell sci-fi horror film, according to Variety.

Carpenter first confirmed the news during a livestream Q&A as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival, in which he spoke about completing the score for 2021’s Halloween Kills. That film, produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse, was due for release in October this year, before it was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Carpenter was asked if he’d talked with Blum about directing a feature film for the horror stable, to which he replied: “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.”

Variety confirmed that the project was in very early stages, and that it wasn’t clear if it would be a sequel, prequel, reboot or remake.

The 1982 film – about a parasitic, shape-shifting alien – was itself a remake of sorts of Howard Hawks's and Christian Nyby's 1951 film The Thing from Another World, but took more direct inspiration from John W. Campbell 1938 novella Who Goes There?.

Read more: Halloween Kills tells ‘a complete story’

A prequel to Carpenter’s film, confusingly also called The Thing, was released in 2011 starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Joel Edgerton.

Blumhouse has earned a reputation in Hollywood for producing solid box office horror hits with very low budgets, and has recently started taking on more and more legacy franchises including Halloween, The Invisible Man and Fantasy Island.

Upcoming Blumhouse reboots include Dracula, Wolf Man and Spawn.