Today's Remake Blashphemy

So we've gotten to the point where we're remaking remakes now? But oh, this ain't just any ol' remake we're remaking, it's one of the prime examples of how remakes can work, and work spectacularly, if done in the right pair of hands; it's as if they're setting themselves up for catastrophe. This is coming from the man behind the fantastic Battlestar Galactica re-do... but I am still unsold, though. Call me cynical!

From Variety:

"Strike Entertainment and Universal Pictures will remake John Carpenter's frightener The Thing.

Script will be written by "Battlestar Galactica" exec producer Ronald D. Moore. The 1982 original dealt with a shape-shifting creature from outer space that terrorizes researchers at an Antarctic facility.

Strike partners Marc Abraham and Eric Newman will produce and the company will co-finance the remake, to which Universal owned the rights. David Foster, who produced the original film, will exec produce.

Carpenter's film continued the storyline of the Howard Hawks-directed "The Thing From Another World." That 1951 film starred James Arness as an alien monster that wiped out workers at an Army radar station.

Carpenter's film opened with a team arriving to find that encampment has been wiped out. The alien moved from the body of one team member to another, so it was never quite clear who the villain was.

Both pictures were based on the John W. Campbell Jr. 1938 short story "Who Goes There?"

The producers said they consider the new film to be more "a companion piece" to the Carpenter film than a note-for-note remake."

What the hell does "companion piece" mean anyway? Is it gonna be a psuedo-sequel of sorts? Or what, exactly? And I have a headache now. Thanks!
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