John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China is no doubt a classic film filled with plenty of B-movie fun that’s sorely lacking in films today. Kurt Russell’s role as Jack Burton had a lot to do with that and it’s safe to say that no one else could be able to replace the man. When plans for a remake surfaced with everyone’s favorite favorite oil-man Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson set to star in it, it’s safe to say that some fans may have been a little nervous. Johnson was set to produce the film with his Seven Bucks Productions film studio and now it seems that the film may not actually be a remake.
Collider spoke to Hiram Garcia, president of production at Seven Bucks Productions and one of the producers of the film. Garcia provided an update on the film’s status, revealing that the plan is now not to remake Carpenter’s classic but provide a continuation to the story. He said:
“There’s a lot of things going on with [Big Trouble in Little China]. We are in the process of developing that, and let me tell you, the idea is not to actually remake Big Trouble in Little China. You can’t remake a classic like that, so what we’re planning to do is we’re going to continue the story. We’re going to continue the universe of Big Trouble in Little China. Everything that happened in the original exists and is standalone and I think there’s only one person that could ever play Jack Burton, so Dwayne would never try and play that character. So we are just having a lot of fun. We’re actually in a really great space with the story that we’ve cracked. But yeah, no remake. It is a continuation, and we are deep into development on that as well, and I think you’ll start hearing some things about that probably soon.”
Well, that’s a relief but at the same time… whaa? Don’t get me wrong, the original from 1986 is undoubtedly a classic but to be honest, it’s a cult classic and is not exactly very popular. Even the original didn’t perform well at the box-office, finding a steady audience on home video but hell, maybe The Rock’s name might get people’s attention.
Source: Collider
