In the last few years, a particular trend has emerged in Hollywood: while straight remakes of 80s and 90s hits were once in large supply, the tactic taken by studios now is to build on fictional universes with decades-later sequels. It's why we've seen projects emerge like the new Halloween and RoboCop Returns, and now it looks like the upcoming Big Trouble In Little China movie starring Dwayne Johnson is following suit. According to producer Hiram Garcia, it's a follow-up, not a reboot:
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 actually 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.
Hiram Garcia is definitely not wrong about John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China being a legitimate classic, and this news is sure to excite fans of the original who were afraid the new project would just be a retread. The producer explained this in a recent interview with Collider when asked for an update about the project - and while he didn't provide any story or character details, this is huge news about the upcoming film's established canon.
In fact, Hiram Garcia - who is a production partner with Dwayne Johnson under the Seven Bucks label - specifically explained that everything that happened in John Carpenter's 1986 cult classic is part of what's being developed in the new script, and firmly explained that Johnson will not be playing Jack Burton, the hero played by Kurt Russell. Said the filmmaker,
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.
The reason the producer stresses that there will be more information soon is likely because there really isn't much out there right now. Big Trouble In Little China was first announced in June of 2015 with Dwayne Johnson attached, but it seems that he has not had much time to specifically dedicate to it in the years since (probably something to do with the fact that he is one of the busiest stars in Hollywood). The movie doesn't currently have a release date, so we'll just have to wait for more updates to find out when it will come together.
On that note, we will be following the project very closely, so stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more of the latest Big Trouble In Little China news.
