And more news from Remakeville comes in – this time to do with the prequel to Carpenter’s The Thing. 
Apparently the movie, which was slated with an April 29th release, just
got bumped off by the fifth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise – Fast Five.

Originally scheduled for June 10, Fast Five’s
bump up shows a lot of faith in the films earnings potential on behalf
of the studio, and why wouldn’t it? 
Collider’s Ben Brown sums it up nicely:  “Fast and the Furious,
the fourth film in the series, made a nice chunk of change for itself
back when it was released in 2009. Its near $400 million gross proved
not only that there was still gas left in the franchise’s box
office tank, but also that any subsequent films would almost certainly
fare well financially. By moving Fast Five
to late April, Universal has craftily situated the film as the first
summer blockbuster of 2011. Not only does this add some additional
excitement to the film’s coming unveiling, but it also
effectively steals the First Release title from Marvel’s Thor, not to mention breaking the studio’s annual track record of summer season kickoffs, begun with 2007’s Spider-Man 3.”

And yeah, all of that is fairly obvious and makes perfect sense – the real question is what it means for The Thing. 
As of yet the film still has a TBD in terms of release and one wonders
if the bump was strictly a vote of confidence for Fast Five or also a bit of a lack of it in The Thing. 
Early word on the film (via set visits, etc) has been promising, but,
to the mainstream movie going audience that made the street-racing
series such a huge success it is all rather unfamiliar.  With
the lack of another Saw
movie hitting in 2011, perhaps Universal is looking to capitalize on
the vacated Halloween box office throne?  I don’t
know but I’m sure we’ll find out once final word of
a release is given.