Longtime collaborators James Wan and Patrick Wilson have discussed taking a break from their usual horror team-ups for a remake of John Carpenter's 1986 cult classic Big Trouble in Little China.
"One of the big reasons I love working with Patrick on my films is [that] he's such a film buff," Wan told Entertainment Weekly. "He's truly, truly a film geek, and when we're working together, a lot of times we're not focused on the film we're shooting -- we're talking about other movies. We all love to geek out about John Carpenter, about Big Trouble in Little China. You know, that's a big film for Patrick and myself, and we always fantasize about doing a remake of [it]." Fans eager to see the duo's take on the classic Kurt Russell action vehicle should not get their hopes too high as Wan added, "But that's never going to happen. I mean, it's a sacrilege movie!"
The fourth collaboration between Carpenter and Russell -- after 1979's TV movie Elvis, 1981's Escape from New York and 1982's The Thing -- Big Trouble in Little China sees Russell as Jack Burton, a trucker who teams up with his friend to save the latter's fiancé from an ancient sorcerer. The action-comedy blends martial arts and fantasy as Burton and team fend off supernatural threats on and underneath the streets of Chinatown, San Francisco. The film received mixed reviews upon release and earned just $11.1 million against a $19-25 million budget, the lowest-grossing film of Carpenter and Russell's combined theatrical efforts, but has since become a cult classic.
Little Movement on the Big Trouble Sequel
The idea of revisiting the Big Trouble is nothing new. Dwayne Johnson has been attached to one such project since 2015, with Thor and X-Men: First Class scribes Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz penning the script. Hiram Garcia, co-founder of Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions, later clarified that the film would be a sequel rather than a remake. In September 2022, Garcia provided another update on the project, telling CinemaBlend, "It's still an ambition of ours, but unfortunately there are complications that come with a legacy property like that which has so much attached to it from over the years."
Garcia continued, saying, "We have a really fun idea on what we'd want to do with it, especially since our goal was never to remake Big Trouble but simply continue it. Similar to what we did with Jumanji, we would continue the story and make sure the original stands on its own since it means so much to us and fans all around the world. So, needless to say we are still working on making that happen, but as with any great projects, the road is not easy, but we are sticking to it! We're going to figure out a way to continue the story of Big Trouble in Little China."
Though Johnson expressed interest in having Carpenter involved in the project early on, the filmmaker has voiced his trepidation in revisiting the property. "It's very early in the process. I haven't spoken to Dwayne Johnson about any of this," Carpenter said in 2015. "I'm ambivalent about a remake." The director's more recent comments have been harsher. "They want a movie with Dwayne Johnson," he added in 2018. "That's what they want. So they just picked that title. They don't give a shit about me and my movie. That movie wasn't a success."
Source: Entertainment Weekly