In an oral history piece for the film (via SyFy), Carpenter divulged his reluctance to make the movie, primarily because he loved the 1951 film so much (the 1951 film even appears on a TV in Carpenter’s “Halloween”). 

“It was not something I wanted to do,” Carpenter said. “Universal had [the rights to] ‘The Thing’ and they wanted to remake it. The original ‘Thing’ was one of my favorite movies. I really didn’t want to get near it. But I re-read the novella and thought, ‘You know, this is a pretty good story here. We get the right writer, the right situation, we could do something.'” 

However, Carpenter was still not entirely sold. Universal tried three separate times to get the film made without Carpenter and failed each time. The studio then turned to Carpenter again, and again, the filmmaker seemed hesitant, saying: “You guys have failed three times. Why do I want to sign onto a failed project?” Eventually, though, Carpenter finally did sign on, developing the project into the film we know today. Again: “The Thing” was not a box office hit, and for years was seen as a failure. However, time has been kind to the movie, and it’s also hailed as a classic Carpenter movie these days. 

Now I guess all that’s left to do is debate the movie’s ending.