Original Big Trouble in Little China director reacts to The Rock's remake

Earlier this month the world discovered that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was in talk to star in a remake of John Carpenter's 1986 cult favorite Big Trouble in Little China. Reaction to the news was mixed, but Carpenter himself seems relatively calm about the production.

When an enthusiastic fan waxed outrage at the perceived treachery of not tapping Carpenter to revisit his film, the director responded in a way so blasé as to be nearly humorous: "20th Century Fox owns the rights... I only know what I read in the papers. I am not involved with it." After these responses, the fan encouraged him to "hang tough." Said Carpenter: "I’m doing fine. I didn’t write the original one—no harm, no foul." It wouldn't be the first time the director's work was revisited by other folks, with 2011's The Thing, 2005's Assault on Precinct 13 and the innumerable continuations of Halloween.

Shortly after the announcement of the reboot, to be penned by Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz, Dwayne Johnson stated that he'd like to bring Carpenter on to the production. It wouldn't be the first time that Carpenter would be involved in a remake of his own work. But when speaking to the Wall Street Journal this week, the director said he had yet to be contacted. "It's very early in the process. I haven't spoken to Dwayne Johnson about any of this."

And yet, he was still untroubled: "I'm ambivalent about a remake. On the other hand, it depends on how much they pay me."

Any way you look at it, it seems, Carpenter's not interested in making big trouble for the Big Trouble reboot.