Back in early June, we reported that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was in talks to produce and star in a remake of John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China, the 1986 action/adventure/horror/fantasy. The film is set to be written by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, who wrote X-Men: First Class. Johnson wants to portray the role of truck driver Jack Burton, a boisterous everyday man who gets caught up in a supernatural war in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Burton was originally played by Kurt Russell, who recently spoke with Collider about this remake and what his thoughts on it are.
Russell starts off by saying that he’s not exactly surprised, claiming, “I mean, I don’t know, I guess it’s that time now. Hey, you know, nothing sacred, why not? Go get it, good luck. I always think it’s interesting what’s gonna be done.”
He continues by questioning the purpose of the remake. “Dwayne Johnson I don’t know what his take on it is gonna be, I don’t know what they’re gonna do,” says Russell. “I always look at those movies when I see a remake and it’s like, “Ok… there’s gotta be a reason”.”
Something that Russell commented on, and it’s 100% accurate, is how Big Trouble in Little China and Carpenter’s remake of The Thing were not appreciated upon release but have found life since, growing into films that have strong appreciation.
So with Big Trouble in Little China John and I, I know we did something that at that time was –The sensibility of that movie was very different, no movie had been made like that, and virtually you flip-flopped the leading man and the psychic, you flip-flopped those roles, that had never been done. And a lot of the humor and the style of that movie was brand new for that time and was very much copied after that, so in its way Big Trouble is definitely a cult film. So I don’t know what their reasons are for remaking the movie but I hope that they have the right reasons and I hope that they do it well and good luck, what can I say? I don’t know, I don’t have thoughts other than that. Hang in there, good luck, go get em’.
Meanwhile, Carpenter stated in an interview, “I’m ambivalent about a remake…On the other hand, it depends on how much they pay me.” This was in response to Johnson being quoted as wanting to bring the original director onto the project.