While all remakes nowadays are met with cries of “what the hell?”, the recent news of Big Trouble in Little China being put through the Hollywood Remake Machine seemed to attract more jeers than most, with many a fan of John Carpenter’s 1986 cult classic quite unhappy with the news. But fear not, for Dwayne Johnson, set to step into the shoes of heroic truck driver Jack Burton (played by Kurt Russell in the original), has heard your cries. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the actor said, “I loved reading the reactions from the fans - I’m the same way”. So what does he suggest as the perfect course of action: “My response is: know that I come to the project with nothing but love and respect for the original, which is why we want to bring on John Carpenter”.
Johnson is definitely onto something here. What better way to appease the fans than bring on the man who helped steer the original to its current place in popular culture. With Ashley Miller and Alex Stenz (X-Men: First Class) having signed on as screen writers, it’s unknown what Johnson has in mind for the director, whether he will have any actual creative input, or just be given a token ‘Executive Producer’ credit. But no matter what, he’s on the right track. “I loved the original when I was younger and I loved the main characters - all the characters. It felt like if we surrounded ourselves with the right group of people, the right writers who loved the movie too and wanted to honour it, bring on John Carpenter in some capacity.....If we did that, we’d have a shot of hopefully making something good.”
No matter what happens, this remake seems to be in the right hands. There is no denying Johnson loves the source material, and couple this with his clout in Hollywood at the moment, we could actually see the original’s off beat tone remain intact. Anybody else, and studio’s would have probably tried to make it grittier and realistic (off beat and goofy just doesn’t fly that well in Hollywood these day). Personally, I think this remake couldn’t be in better hands.
