Universal Pictures has decided to make some changes to its upcoming release schedule that may lead to some fans to become a little bit concerned.

The studio’s prequel to John Carpenter’s 1982 horror classic of the same name, The Thing, had been scheduled for release on April 29, 2011. Now it’s being reported that Universal has decided to pull The Thing from said release date and replace it with Fast Five, the fifth movie in the Fast and the Furious franchise. The Thing was not given another release date.

And while this could have those excited to see the movie a little worried as to what’s going on, the studio simply said that they made the move because The Thing is not yet ready, and that they’re very high on Fast Five.

So is the movie really just not ready, or is there troubles looming over the production of the film? Only time will tell.

This is why we rarely report on movie release dates; too often does a studio set a date and then move it up a week, back three, or sometimes even many months, as we saw with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1. Things would be much more organized if they took notes from video game makers, who work on titles for a long time and only set a release date when they know it’s almost ready.

The Thing is directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., and will tell the story of the Norwegian research team we briefly saw at the beginning of Carpenter’s film.

[Source: Hero Complex]