The saga of the ever-changing Karate Kid remake title continues. You might remember when we posted a couple set photos earlier in the week, we mentioned that the Will Smith-produced remake/re-imagining of The Karate Kid had been officially retitled The Kung-Fu Kid. A /Film commenter named videophonic forwarded us to some official art on Sony’s website which still features the old title. I don’t believe I’ve seen this art anywhere else online, so I thought I’d pass it along.
Posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
This is the first set photo I’ve seen from the Will Smith-produced remake/re-imagining of The Karate Kid, which thankfully has officially been retitled The Kung-Fu Kid. What are they doing?
Posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta
The Associated Press has confirmed that the Will Smith-produced remake/re-imagining of The Karate Kid has officially been retitled The Kung-Fu Kid. The new title should qualm upset fans of the original, and actually makes a whole load more of sense considering the story is based around Kung Fu and not Karate.
Earlier this month when Academy Award-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson was cast in Columbia Pictures’ reimagining of The Karate Kid, we asked you if she brought any credibility to the project. Tonight it has been revealed that a new screenwriter has been hired for the Will Smith-produced reboot.
Who is the new scribe? Steven Conrad, whose credits include Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, The Weather Man, The Pursuit of Happyness and the underrated comedy The Promotion. An obvious choice considering Conrad’s connection to Smith. But will a new screenwriter be able to save this project from expected doom? Don’t count on it, especially considering the bits and pieces of information that leaked out of Chris Murphy’s previous draft. Lets just hope that the final film is retitled The Kung Fu Kid, or something else entirely.
source: RiskyBiz
Moviehole has learned some new details about the Will Smith-produced reimagining of The Karate Kid. The film’s plot is broadly the same as the original 1984 film, but with many little differences. The Daniel Larusso character, played by Jaden Smith, has been renamed Dre (I kid you not) and is a skateboarding video game buff. With the fear of layoffs looming over her U.S. job, Dre’s single mother accepts an offer to transfer to the China office. Of course, unable to speak Chinese, Dre finds it hard to settle in, and gets beat up by the local bully.
Remember when we warned you that Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith was gearing up to ruin The Karate Kid in a remake featuring Jackie Chan as Mr. Miyagi? We even pleaded with Columbia Pictures to drop the project entirely, or else they will riskangering an entire generation of moviewatchers. Well it seems like the studio is aware of the potential backlash, and according to a comment made by Jackie Chan, discovered by FirstShowing, have decided to change the title of the film.
