Kurt Russell On The Rock’s Big Trouble in Little China Remake: “Why Not?”

Earlier this year, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson announced plans to produce and star in a remake of John Carpenter’s 1986 fantasy action comedy ‘Big Trouble in Little China.’

It’s fair to say that fans of the original movie were at best divided at the idea of the man-mountain Johnson taking on the role of the overconfident but dim-witted Jack Burton, who unwittingly stumbles into an ancient war between supernatural Kung Fu fighters in San Francisco Chinatown.

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The original film’s director Carpenter was immediately forthright on the matter, telling The Wall Street Journal, “I’m ambivalent about a remake… On the other hand, it depends on how much they pay me.”

However, to date we’ve heard nothing from the original Jack Burton himself, Kurt Russell - who recently co-starred with Johnson (although the two shared no scenes, unfortunately) in this year’s mega-hit ‘Fast and Furious 7.’

Discussing the matter with Collider, Russell seemed very level-headed about the whole thing.

“Hey, you know, nothing sacred, why not? Go get it, good luck. I always think it’s interesting what’s gonna be done. Dwayne Johnson, I don’t know what his take on it is gonna be, I don’t know what they’re gonna do.

“I always look at those movies when I see a remake and it’s like, “Ok… there’s gotta be a reason.””

It’s only right that Russell should have an open mind on the subject of remakes, given that one of the most acclaimed films he made with John Carpenter was a remake itself.

“I did one with John [Carpenter], we did the remake of ‘The Thing.’ But John didn’t want to remake the original movie, he wanted to remake Who Goes There? …Which had never been made, which was the short story [on which ‘The Thing’ was based].

“So ours is in fact quite different that the original ‘Thing’ and it was a horrific monster [Laughs] and it took a long time for that movie to kind of gain it’s appreciation but through the years it’s been nice to watch that happen with that movie, it’s now considered one of the great horror movies ever made and I’m very proud to have been a part of that.

“So with ‘Big Trouble in Little China’… 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 [sidekick]… 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’.”

No release date has been set for the ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ remake, nor has a director been named, but screenplay duties have been given to Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz (’Thor,’ ’X-Men: First Class,’ the upcoming ‘Power Rangers’ reboot).

Rusell will next be seen in two westerns - ‘Bone Tomahawk,’ opening 19 February 2016, and before that Quentin Tarantino’s ‘The Hateful Eight,’ opening 8 January 2016.

Picture Credit: 20th Century Fox, Universal