Russell was in a unique position to talk about the “Big Trouble in Little China” remake/continuation, as he and John Carpenter had already made 1982’s “The Thing,” which was a remake of Christian Nyby’s 1951 thriller “The Thing from Another World.” Additionally, Carpenter’s film was, in turn, given a prequel-cum-remake in 2011 (which was also called “The Thing”). Russell noted that Carpenter didn’t necessarily see his film as a remake of the 1951 film but as another adaptation of John W. Campbell, Jr.’s 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” on which the 1951 film was also based. Because Carpenter went back to the source material, Russell thought, it could be considered a fresh take, a new angle on the material. It also helped that the monster effects in Carpenter’s “The Thing” were so impressive; the two films stand apart. 

About the original “Big Trouble,” Russell noted: 

“The sensibility of that movie was very different, no movie had been made like that, and virtually you flip-flopped the leading man and the psychic. You flip-flopped those roles. That had never been done. And a lot of the humor and the style of that movie was brand new for that time and was very much copied after that, so in its way ‘Big Trouble’ is definitely a cult film.” 

Indeed, the shtick of “Big Trouble” is that Jack Burton thinks he’s the lead character when really he’s the sidekick to Wang Chi, the character played by Dannis Dun. It’s weird and off-kilter and gloriously strange and exciting.