TL; DR: Sim, ele comentou sobre o prequel várias vezes, mas o pouco que ele disse sobre isso varia de descomprometido a levemente negativo. Quanto a saber se ele "deu a prequela sua bênção", a resposta parece depender de quem você pergunta.
Stuart Cohen, produtor do filme Carpenter de 1982, coloca isso em um Reddit AMA:
My official comment on the remake is the same as John Carpenters: no comment...
- Stuart Cohen, Reddit AMA
Nota: Todas as citações abaixo são minhas
John Carpenter, em um site de fãs Q & A ; ele diz que não deu sua bênção e prefere outros spin offs de seu filme:
Q. There are rumours going about that you a) gave the producers of The Thing Prequel your blessing and b) you were being lined up for a cameo role - is there any truth to these rumours or are they just lies?
A. And the rumors are not true.
E:
Q. If you had made a sequel to The Thing back in the mid to late 80's, where would you have set it? In a city? Some other isolated location? Would you have even bothered had the opportunity arose for you to take up the helm and expand on the mythology? More over, what things do you think would be cool or interesting to add to the creature? Do you think adding to the list of peculiar things it could, would, and would not do would make for a more interesting alien/monster, or are you more for the mystery and leaving it ambiguous?
A. The best THE THING 2 story, I believe, was in the Dark Horse limited series comic book published in the 80's. It began with MacReady and Childs walking over the icy landscape....
John Carpenter em uma entrevista ; ele claramente diz que ninguém o consultou sobre o prequel:
Q: When The Thing prequel was announced there was a lot of speculation about whether it was a remake or a reboot or a prequel and a lot of people were really up in arms that it was happening it all because your film is pretty much considered gospel. Were you at all involved in that process, when people were deciding whether they should do it and what it should look like?
A: No, no one asked me anything. Universal owns the movie and I was just a hired gun on that film. And it’s odd to hear you say it’s gospel because that movie was hated when it came out, mainly by the fans. It was amazing. So it’s surprising for me to hear you say that people have any kind of care for it because it sure wasn’t cared for when it first came out.
Outra entrevista com Carpenter; esta ocorreu enquanto o prequel estava em produção; note que ele conhece menos sobre o prequel do que o entrevistador:
Q: You know I went to the set of the prequel of THE THING that Universal is doing and...
A: Oh yeah? How did it look?
Q: From what I saw it looked good. I don’t know what the final product will look like. To me it really depends… You can do a lot of modernizing when you revisit something like The Thing, but especially since this is a prequel, they have to match your style and the tone and feel of your film if they want it to truly lead into it. The director told me that what he would like to do is he would love for audiences to end THE THING prequel and immediately start your film and have it be one continuous story. I think that they end this film with the Norwegian chasing the dog. I hope it works.
A: Right, got it. Well, I know they have a photo of a very attractive looking girl with a flamethrower in her hands.
Q: Yes.
A: Now how bad can this movie be? (laughs) I saw that and said, “This has to be great!”
Q: I read an early draft of the script. I don’t know how much was changed, but it kind of surprised me how much I liked it because I went in there very cynically. I’m not opposed to remakes, obviously I love your remake, but I went in kind of with a “prove it” attitude and when I read the script it was actually very smart in how it took some of the conventions of your film and turned them on their head.
A: Eric Newman is a very talented producer. I like him a lot and he has always been very nice and very forthcoming, so there’s a lot of intelligence behind the project.
Q: He struck me as a genuine fan. He didn’t seem to be trying to do a remake or a reboot or a prequel just to cash in on a known property.
A: This is Hollywood, okay. It’s about commerce. Let’s never forget that.
Uma breve sinopse do Carpenter, falando com Digital Spy :
Universal has made a prequel to The Thing. They've already shot it. It's a prequel to my film and I didn't have anything to do with it. So I don't know what to say. That's their choice.
Um tweet de Carpenter, em 16 de outubro de 2011 ( citado em um site de fãs para o prequel); ele diz que nem viu o prequel:
I haven’t seen THE THING prequel. I hope it’s good. One improvement on my movie: they have a babe, a very talented actress.
Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., diretor do prequel, em um site de fãs Q & A :
Q: What were the main reasons to keep away Carpenter from the film?
A: We didn’t keep him away. He gave his blessings but wanted to stay away.
E:
Q: Have you spoken with John Carpenter since the release of your movie? And, if so, what input did he have for you?
A: No I haven’t. He gave his blessings and that was it.
Stuart Cohen, co-produtor de The Thing (1982), em um site de fãs Q & A ; O relacionamento tenso de Cohen com seu ex-parceiro David Foster o leva a permanecer em silêncio em relação à prequel:
Q: Mr Cohen, I know that the film isn't released yet but what are your thoughts on the upcoming prequel?
A: My former partner [producer David Foster] is involved, so no comment...
David Foster, produtor de ambos os filmes, em uma entrevista ; Foster descreve a atitude de Carpenter em relação à prequel antes de ser feita:
Q: If the original film wasn’t successful at the box office, why return to it in a sense?
A: It’s a different time. I think genre films are much more attractive to audiences today than they were back then. John Carpenter and I became friends on The Thing and this is the second movie of his that I’ve ‘remade.’
We redid The Fog and John’s attitude is amazing. I called him one day and said, ‘Why don’t we remake The Fog?’ and he said, ‘Yeah, go ahead, make me rich!’
John’s attitude is that he will personally never remake any of his films. He said, ‘I’ve done them once; that was my vision of the film. I’m happy to be a producer with you, and we can work together with the writer on the script, but I don’t want to talk to the director if it’s possible, because I don’t want him to think I’m looking over his shoulder.’ His attitude is that this is Matthijs’ vision of the movie he wants to make and it’s not the same story.
Conclusão:
Carpenter diz que ele não teve nada a ver com o prequel e nem sequer deu sua bênção, mas também não tentou impedir que ele fosse feito (presumivelmente porque ele não tinha direito legal fazer isso).
Van Heijningen diz que Carpenter não teve nada a ver com o prequel, mas fez dar sua bênção; já que Carpenter nega isso, podemos supor que, no máximo, Carpenter disse algo como "boa sorte".
Foster não menciona nenhuma bênção sendo dada, mas confirma o fato de que Carpenter não estava envolvido no prequel de forma alguma.