Like many of you guys out there, one of my favorite cult classics on the block is director John Carpenter's BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA starring Kurt Russell. And like many of you out there, I was immediately more than a little hesitant when I heard that Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson was set to produce and star in a remake of the flick.
Well, to soothe your mind if only a little bit today we have news via Collider and producer Hiram Garcia that the plan is no longer to remake the classic Carpenter film, but create a continuation of the story.
Producer Hiram Garcia:
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 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.
Does this new sequel vs. remake approach make the idea of seeing another entry in the BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA series starring The Rock any better? I guess it helps a little in my eyes because even seeing Russell return as Jack Burton for a single scene would make all of this worth it in my eyes.
And speaking of Kurt Russell, the man, the legend starred in the original John Carpenter film as hard-boiled
Truck driver Jack Burton, who gets caught in a bizarre conflict within, and underneath, San Francisco's Chinatown. An ancient Chinese prince and Chinatown crime lord have kidnapped a beautiful green-eyed woman, who is the fiancee of Jack's best friend. Jack must help his friend rescue the girl before the evil Lo Pan uses her to break the ancient curse that keeps him a fleshless and immortal spirit.
If it helps you sleep better at night, this sequel won't be happening anytime soon as The Rock has JUNGLE CRUISE first up, then that FAST & FURIOUS spin-off with Jason Statham, and then JUMANJI 2 (or is it 3 at this point?), then a thriller called RED NOTICE co-starring Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot.