Not much has been heard about Universal’s much talked about prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 sci-fi horror classic The Thing, itself a remake of 1951’s Howard Hawks-produced The Thing from Another World, since it was bumped from its original Spring release date to make way for Fast Five. There hasn’t even been an official trailer released yet outside of a teaser that screened at conventions last year (which you can watch below; also, here’s our footage description and panel coverage from the 2010 New York Comic-Con). On top of all this, the studio also decided to name the prequel The Thing as well, because they don’t want to create any confusion apparently.

Hoping to stave off the cloud of doom that hangs over this new Thing, Universal has released the first official poster and it looks….interesting. (Check it out here below.) In fact, the poster definitely looks like one for a Thing movie so I guess the studio did their job. It’s a simple yet creepy piece with the logo (strongly reminiscent of the 1982 film) taking up most of the poster space and a mysterious individual inside the logo sprouting some strange looking appendages on their left hand, which brings to mind the fate of one of the characters from the Carpenter film.

The 1982 version of The Thing is one of my top three favorite films of all time and the idea of any kind of follow-up has always interested me, but the direction they decided to go in for the new movie is perplexing. The director is a gentleman by the name of Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and The Thing marks his directorial debut. The screenplay is by Battlestar Galactica writer-producer Ronald D. Moore and Eric Heisserer, whose credits include last year’s Nightmare on Elm Street remake and the upcoming Final Destination 5.

This one could be good, but I will not hold out much hope.

The Thing (hope that title changes just a bit) stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World), Eric Christian Olsen (Not Another Teen Movie), Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom), Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost), and Ulrich Thomsen (Duplicity), and opens October 14, 2011.

Poster

Click thumbnail below for larger, full view of the poster.

Trailer

[Source: EW]