Universal Flips for 'The Thing'

Universal Studios Home Video has made a change to their upcoming October lineup of HD DVD titles, mutating the 1982 cult classic 'The Thing' into a HD DVD/DVD combo disc.

As originally announced last week, John Carpenter's gory remake was to hit HD DVD on October 24 oozing with extras, as well as a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. According to Universal's current listing for the title on its official media and retail website, the disc's goodies remain unchanged, though its list price has been upped to $34.99.

However, as current technical limitations to the HD DVD/DVD combo format mean that the HD DVD side is limited to an HD-15 (15Gb) single-layer disc (versus a more roomy HD-30), we can only hope Universal won't have to drop any features to make room to add on the standard DVD.

In the meantime, we've updated disc specs for 'The Thing' in our HD DVD Release Schedule, including its newly-revised box cover art.