This weekend, Universal announced that the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing will not be released in April 2011 as planned. In fact, the status of the film has been changed to ‘not yet ready.’ Everyone knows when a film gets shelved, or the release date pushed back, it never means anything good. Remember The Weinstein’s and John Hillcoat’s The Road? Does The Thing suck? Are the effects horrible? Bad acting?
Well today, producer Marc Abraham attempted to do some PR damage control. He has announced the delay of the film has nothing to do with the sorts of reasons most likely being speculated about. He says that a bit more time in the schedule will allow for some additional photography that will “enhance existing sequences,” “make crystal clear a few story beats” and “add punctuation marks to the film’s feeling of dread.”
This sounds like an attempt to salvage the public’s idea of the film, and I’m not so sure I believe it. Even coming from Abrahams who has produced films like Children of Men and Spy Game.
What do you thing? Are you buying what Abraham is selling? Read the whole interview at Hitflix.
