5 Things We Want in the ‘Big Trouble in Little China’ Sequel

One of the greatest achievements of Big Trouble, and the reason it holds up so well, is the use of amazing practical FX. As with many monster movies of the ‘80s, their charm and positive aging comes from creatures and gore that can be felt on-screen, not mastered in some computer lab. Effects company Boss Films, led by Richard Edlund (Raiders of the Lost Arc, Poltergeist), with the stacked talents of Screaming Mad George (Society) and Steve Johnson (Fright Night), brought audiences the grotesquely withered David Lo Pan (James Hong). It was an underground yeti demon, a multi-eyed floating sewer monster, and one of the most iconic head explosions this side of Scanners. 

Now, of course, there will be some CGI. With light blaring out of people’s faces, the Three Storms riding in on lightning and thunder claps, and flying martial arts acrobatics, this might actually be a moment when modern cinema technologies will give some polish to the visual profound. That’s not saying the original looks dated. In fact, when it comes to ‘80s visual FX, Big Trouble has really got stunning presentation. All we ask is that the continuation make use of the talented practical FX artists of today and give us some new creatures and absurd body morphology present from the classic. 

The actual hero of Big Trouble in Little China is not Russell’s Jack Burton. As Carpenter himself said, “Jack Burton is a guy who is a sidekick but doesn’t know it. He’s an idiot-blowhard. He’s an American fool in a world that he doesn’t understand.” The man who does understand, who’s fighting to save his fiancee, Miao Yin (Suzee Pai), from he evil David Lo Pan, is Wang Chi portrayed by Dennis Dun. He’s more humble than Burton, with less bravado but a whole lot more brawl. To sum up, he kicks ass. He’s as ready to run into the fray to save his beloved as Jack, but much more capable and with more on the line. Where Burton is a lovable fool, Wang is heroic and understands the risks they are undertaking making him more sensible and effective in their crisis. While ol’ Jack might be more memorable, this is Wang Chi’s story to save his love. 

According to the imdb.com summary, the Rock’s Big Trouble is, “a truck driver and his new friend, Jack Burton,” uniting on a new adventure. But seeing as we’re still dealing with Little China, I see no reason why Burton should be the only returning character. He would serve an integral role, filling in the Egg Shen (Victor Wong) character with intimate knowledge of the underground goings-on of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the present day. 

One of the biggest complaints that came out of the original Big Trouble in Little China is the caricaturesque-portrayal of Chinese mysticism. I will say, the over-the-topness makes the movie all the more enjoyable, and even Carpenter got the actors’ blessings when working with their culture’s portrayal on screen. Inspired by Charlie Chan of the 1930s and Fu Manchu films of the 1960s, David Lo Pan and his stormy goons in straw hats are not quite grounded in the rich history and mythology of China proper. This can be seen as somewhat self-reflexive as Jack Burton serves as an “experience of the audience” character: someone who sees through a Westernized lens of Chinese culture thus making everything larger than life just in perception and not in reality. But it’s 2021…and for some reason, we just cannot do that anymore. 

In W.D. Richter’s rewrite of the original script (penned by Gary Goldman and David Z. Weinstein as a Western), he brought it into modern day using inspiration from Rosemary’s Baby. And as unlikely a place as that sounds, he saw the dark occult rituals and lore brought into the modern era with grace and a serious creep factor. If Johnson and company look into the lush history, mythologies, beliefs, and mysticism in Chinese tradition and draw from accuracy instead of stereotype, there’s a real opportunity for some amazing set pieces and story concepts. 

For example, the God of Thunder in Chinese folk religion is a pretty intense bird-like demon with wings whose wife is the goddess of lightning, which she creates with mirrors she carries around. I’d like to see ol’ Jack face that. 

So, in 1986, John Carpenter and his Halloween band, the Coupe De Villes (that’s Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace accompanying), wrote and performed the soundtrack and theme for Big Trouble in Little China. Carpenter fans will know he often composed his own soundtracks using a fairly basic, albeit specifically haunting and fantastical, synth sound that just lives in the minds of audiences. Halloween, obviously, but also Escape from New York and Prince of Darkness and ya know what…nearly all of them. 

Then, a real treat came when in 2018, the latest Halloween reroute by David Gordon Green got Carpenter to sign on for a new, revamped score by him and his son, Cody Carpenter. And it. Was. Awesome! Perhaps even more awesome than the original. And as scoring and music is something Carpenter has been doing more and more of recently, it isn’t beyond the scope to ask the father-son duo to do it again. Big Trouble, like his other flicks, has an immensely memorable score, so it almost wouldn’t be a continuation without the music of the Coupe De Villes. Grab Nick Castle and Tommy Lee Wallace and write a part two theme. I don’t think that’s too much to ask! 

Big Trouble in Little China bombed at the box office. Its opening weekend, it grossed $2.7 million with the final tally landing at $11.1 million. As the movie cost about $19-25 mil to make…you could say it flopped with the studios. In irony of ironies, Russell mentions on the commentary track that, before release, critics at the time would ask him, “how does it feel to be in the top action movie of the year?” truly believing Big Trouble was heading for big box office success. 

Well, it did not. And while many speculate that the release of Aliens 16 days later had a hand in it never quite recouping, it’s very clear the marketing was a problem for the studio. It was after Big Trouble that Carpenter effectively severed his ties with the studio system and has worked independent pretty much ever since. 

According to Carpenter, Fox had a strict $3 million marketing cap for all pictures. As it was pitched to him, they were taking out large double-page ads in the paper and magazines, lining cineplexes with posters – really dialing up the marketing and using every penny of that $3 million. Unfortunately, you still need to fill those pages and posters with something relevant, and the campaign style those chose? Well, it just didn’t fit. Large displays of Russell’s face with questions like “Who is this man? What’s he gotten himself in to?” played across the banner ads – and the truth was…people didn’t know who he was and didn’t care. It’s almost as if the marketing department were actually asking, “who is this guy and what is this movie about?!” 

And as much as us horror geeks would like to imagine a world where everyone has seen Big Trouble…a lot of people still have not. When you’ve got Dwayne Johnson, people are probably going to be interested regardless. But there’s still going to have to be some ingenuity in getting the lovers, the skeptics, and the “I’m not even sure what this is” audiences to come together and want to see Big Trouble 2. 

There are still no updates on the production or release of The Rock’s ‘Big Trouble’ project, and to be honest, I haven’t actually heard if they’ve officially signed Kurt Russell onto it or not, though it is the intention. So, I would say these suggestions come at a good time, 35 years later, with all the love of the wacky, awesome, still-holds-up-today antics that are John Carpenter’s ‘Big Trouble in Little China’.