The central joke in John Carpenter’s 1986 martial arts comedy Big Trouble in Little China is that himbo hero Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) thinks he’s the story’s main character when in reality he’s other people’s goofy, comic sidekick. It should be acknowledged that Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) is the real hero of Big Trouble, and it’s ultimately his heroism that saves his fiancée Miao Yin (Suzee Pai) from the clutches of evil sorcerer Lo Pan (James Hong). Wang Chi is the one with the fighting skills and the one with the connections to other magicians. Jack Burton is a goofy show-off with the brawn to fend off bad guys and the know-how of a golden retriever.
Needless to say, Little China is quirky and charming. It remains John Carpenter’s quirkiest film. In fact, it may be the only comedy film Carpenter directed; Memoirs of an Invisible Man is more of a science fiction thriller than a proper comedy. The screenplay was written by W.D. Richter, who also wrote the 1978 version of The Body Snatchers and the underrated 1979 Dracula. Richter also directed the famous 1984 cult oddity The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
It was announced back in 2015 that a remake of “Big Trouble in Little China” was in the works and in 2018 it was made clear that it would be more of a sequel. However, since 2019 the project seems to be in limbo.
Russell was not asked to star in the sequel, although he might be interested. In 2023, the actor spoke to ComicBook.com and said he would love to return to play an older Jack Burton. However, he had two conditions: the script must be good and there must be something substantial to say.
Bigger problems in Little China
Russell has always enjoyed working with Carpenter. Aside from Big Trouble in Little China, the two made Elvis, The Rattlesnake, The Thing and Escape from LA together. They had a healthy working relationship and both approached their material with a practical, pragmatic eye. Russell, however, did not want to be involved in any stinking nostalgia-bait and demanded that any sequels to Big Trouble in Little China be well-written. This seems almost obvious, but Russell wanted to make it official; he won’t return as Jack Burton for everyone:
“Never say never. I mean, if someone wrote a great script that was better than the first one and had something new to say. I don’t know, we can poke fun at John Carpenter a little bit and say, ‘Come on, John! Let’s do it.'”
The line “slap John a little” refers to John Carpenter’s famous semi-retired state. Carpenter hasn’t directed a feature film since 2010’s The Ward, and hasn’t expressed much interest in returning to the director’s chair; he stopped giving a shit a long time ago. He’s said he’s content writing music (he composed the scores for 2018’s Halloween and its sequels), playing video games, performing concerts, and hanging out. Carpenter has also said he loves it when people remake his movies because then he gets a check for not working at all.
Additionally, Carpenter has been busy developing a zombie-themed first-person shooter game called “Toxic Commando,” which is set to be released in late 2024. Movies are currently far from his mind, however. Carpenter, 76, and Russell, 73, would no doubt make an entertaining “Old Jack” movie together, but it would only be good if both men were genuinely interested.
