Studios hardly ever lose money on horror movies, so it’s not surprising in this financially perilous times that Universal has commissioned a script for a third version of “The Thing” from “Battlestar Galactica” producer Ron Moore, with commercial director Matthijs Van Heijningen slated to make his directing debut. John Carpenter remade the 1951 classic (credited to Christian Nyby, though many believe it was mostly directed by producer Howard Hawks) in 1982. RKO Pictures LLC, which holds the remake rights to hundreds of RKO pictures (Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. hold all other rights to these titles stateside) is apparently not involved. Its corporate predecessor, RKO General, conveyed the rights to the “Thing From Another World” (its formal title) to Universal as part of a complex settlement of a lawsuit brought by Universal after RKO licensed the remake rights to “King Kong” to Dino DeLaurentiis for his 1976 remake. Universal contended it had already purchased those rights for “King Kong vs. Godzilla” in the 1960s, and, as part of the settlement, they got the merchandising rights to “King Kong” as well as the evental right to make their remake by Peter Jackson, As part of the deal, RKO General also agreed to finance several films for Universal in the ’80s, including Paul Schrader’s re-do of “The Cat People” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”