by Justin Cook
Coming off of such 2015 box office successes as San Andreas and Furious 7, actor Dwayne Johnson is in negotiations to star in and produce the upcoming remake of Big Trouble in Little China.
X-Men: First Class and Thor writers Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller will pen the script. Johnson’s producing partners Dany Garcia and Hiram Garcia are on board for the project as well.
The original John Carpenter cult classic, which was released back in 1986, starred Kurt Russell as Jack Burton, a hard-nosed truck driver who finds himself in the middle of a conflict beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown. While the film flopped at the box office, only grossing a little over $11 million on a $20 million budget, the film garnered a small, but passionate following.
Carpenter himself was not as proud of the film as his other two collaborations with Russell at the time, The Thing and Escape from New York, and the film became part of the reason why the director returned to independent filmmaking.
Johnson is currently one of the biggest movie stars in the world, and seems to be one of the few stars whose name alone can sell a film to audiences.
Furious 7 enjoyed four weeks in the top spot at the box office, while Johnson’s newest film San Andreas currently occupies that spot as well. Furious 7 has grossed over $1.5 billon worldwide, more than any other this year, and close to $350 million domestically. San Andreas, on the other hand, beat expectations and made around $55 million in its first weekend at the domestic box office alone.
Johnson has confirmed that he will be returning for the eighth installment in The Fast and the Furious franchise. He is also set to star in such films as Central Intelligence, Shazam! and Moana. The actor’s new TV show Ballers will premiere on HBO on June 21.
Source: The Wrap
