James Wan and Patrick Wilson fantasize about remaking 1986's Big Trouble in Little China

James Wan has repeatedly cast Patrick Wilson in his movies, and they have at least two more upcoming collaborations. Wilson is both starring in and directing the Wan-produced Insidious 5 (out July 7), and the actor will also reprise his role of Orm Marius in the Wan-directed Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (out Dec. 25).

But according to Wan, the pair have one particular dream project in mind.

"One of the big reasons I love working with Patrick on my films is, he's such a film buff," Wan recently told EW while promoting his latest flick as a producer, the just-released horror romp M3GAN. "He's truly, truly a film geek, and when we're working together, a lot of times we're not focused on the film we're shooting — we're talking about other movies. We all love to geek out about John Carpenter, about Big Trouble in Little China. You know, that's a big film for Patrick and myself, and we always fantasize about doing a remake of [it]."

However, he was quick to add, "But that's never going to happen. I mean, it's a sacrilege movie!"

Everett Collection The 1986 action-comedy 'Big Trouble in Little China'

Directed by Carpenter, Big Trouble in Little China stars Kurt Russell as the heroic but hapless Jack Burton, who teams up with Dennis Dunn's Wang Chi to face off against James Hong's villainous Lo Pan. A mix of comedy, martial arts, and the supernatural, the movie was not a hit when it was released in 1986 but has acquired a cult following over time.

"Fortunately for us, tapes and DVDs were just beginning to come out, and Big Trouble in Little China found its life anyway," Russell told EW in 2016. "That one really grabbed ahold of the audience."

In June 2015, The Wrap reported that Dwayne Johnson was in negotiations to star in and produce a remake of Carpenter's film.

"I loved the original when I was younger, and I loved the main character — all the characters," Johnson subsequently told EW about the project. "It felt like if we surrounded ourselves with the right group of people, the right writers who loved the movie too and wanted to honor it, bring on John Carpenter in some capacity… If we did that, then we have a shot at hopefully making something good."

Hiram Garcia, president of production at Johnson's company Seven Bucks Productions, later clarified that the new Big Trouble movie would be a sequel rather than a remake, and in 2021 he offered an update on the project.

"It's still an ambition of ours, but unfortunately there are complications that come with a legacy property like that, which has so much attached to it from over the years," Garcia told Collider. "We have a really fun idea on what we'd want to do with it, especially since our goal was never to remake Big Trouble but simply continue it. Similar to what we did with Jumanji, we would continue the story and make sure the original stands on its own, since it means so much to us and fans all around the world… We're going to figure out a way to continue the story of Big Trouble in Little China."

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