The remake of Big Trouble in Little China is still moving forward

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Reminder: 20th Century Fox is assembling a remake of John Carpenter's 1986 action/comedy cult classic BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. If you had forgotten that was in the works, it's understandable, it had faded from my mind as well. It's been almost exactly one year since the project was announced, with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson signed on to play the character that Kurt Russell made so memorable in the original film, truck driver Jack Burton. Things have been very quiet on the BIG TROUBLE front since last June, and with Johnson seemingly signing on to a new film every couple days, it's easy to see why the remake could have been pushed into the back of your brain and buried by other news.

That June announcement came very early in the project's development, though. Wording seemed to indicate that screenwriters Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (THOR, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS) had only recently closed their deal to write the film, so it makes sense that it would be a while before we heard anything else about it.

Earlier this month, Stentz jogged my memory during an appearance on the Screen Junkies show Movie Fights. When Johnson was mentioned, Stentz simply said "I'm writing a movie for him." I had to do a Google search to see what he might be talking about… Oh yeah, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA!

Now Johnson himself has confirmed that the remake is making progress. When asked by Fandango if it was still happening, Johnson replied, 

That's happening, man! That's happening, that's happening. And again, that's one of those things where you gotta take really good care of it."

It is indeed a project that needs extra care as it's put together, so it's best that they take some time with it, even if that means we don't hear anything about it for periods of up to 11 months.

If you need a refresher on what BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA is about… well, you should really watch the movie, but here's the synopsis: 

Kurt Russell is Jack Burton, a tough truck driver who doesn't believe in ghosts or magic. That is until he's swept headlong into a mind boggling adventure within the mysterious world under San Francisco's Chinatown. Jack's pal, Wang Chi, must rescue his fiancee, who has been kidnapped by the evil Lo Pan, a 2000 year old ghost who requires a green-eyed maiden to free him from an ancient curse and restore him to his physical body. Accompanied by a variety of would-be heroes, Jack and Wang venture deep into the catacombs beneath Chinatown to confront the wicked Lo Pan and retrieve Wang's girl. But before they do, they will encounter ghosts, evil spirits, monsters, Kung Fu masters, and of course the wrath of Lo Pan. Big Trouble in Little China – its the adventure of a lifetime, in just over an hour and a half!