John Carpenter Making A Sequel To His Best Movie?
John Carpenter often plays with those who are lucky enough to interview him, but he recently said which of his films he wants to make a sequel to.
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It may be a little early to get our hopes up, but it looks like legendary film director John Carpenter is open to the idea of making a sequel to 1982’s The Thing. The science-fiction horror film stars Kurt Russell, Keith David, Wilford Brimley, and a number of other heavily bearded men, as they fight for their lives against an invading alien entity in the Arctic. It has become a classic of the genre since its release. While there have been many attempts to give it either the reboot, prequel, sequel, or video game treatment, none of them have really landed with the last impact of the original. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming 4K release of another of his Kurt Russell projects, Escape From L.A., Carpenter mentioned that The Thing was one of the classic films that he would either like to continue or make a sequel for.
Of course, John Carpenter being John Carpenter and legendarily predisposed to not take interviews too seriously, it is difficult to know whether he actually has plans to follow through on this. When The Thing was first released in 1982, Carpenter was still riding high from the monumental success of the original Halloween, which perhaps codified and influenced the slasher genre more than any movie before or after it. He had also built a personal brand in his films that saw his movies marketed as John Carpenter’s Escape from New York and John Carpenter’s The Fog. The Thing is based on the 1951 film The Thing from Another World, a childhood favorite of his, which became a work of passion. After difficulties in production, filming, and writing, the film would then go on to develop necessary and groundbreaking special effects from designer Rob Bottin. However, after all that, the film was finally released to incredibly negative reviews and poor box office performance.
After some years, The Thing developed a cult audience, and its claustrophobic and icy tone was re-evaluated. In contrast to the reviews that compared it negatively to other genre movies from 1982 like E.T. The Extraterrestrial and Tron, it is now generally thought of as John Carpenter’s masterpiece. Though the director has not made a film since 2010’s The Ward, it is unsurprising that he would be interested in revisiting a property that has shown his instincts correct over the decades. And considering that you apparently cannot stop Halloween reboots and sequels from being made by any known means, it seems only fair that The Thing should get a chance as well.
Although he has not been making films of late, John Carpenter has certainly been keeping active. He has been brought in as a consultant for the various Halloween films made by David Gordon Green and to create new music for the series. In addition to that, he regularly tours performing both his iconic film scores live and his own original music. Plus, by all reports, the 74-year-old filmmaker has become quite the gamer in recent years. But if he does get around to making a new The Thing project, we are all on board.
