Screen Rant » the kung fu kid

‘Pursuit of Happyness’ Writer Working On ‘Karate Kid’ Rewrites

Rob Frappier — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:27:41 +0000

When Screen Rant first reported that Columbia was remaking The Karate Kid, fan reaction was decidedly negative. Many people asked: Why? Why remake a film that many consider a modern classic? If you are going to remake a well-known film, why change it’s title to The Kung Fu Kid? Our subsequent coverage did little to mitigate these concerns.

Now, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Steven Conrad, the writer of The Pursuit of Happyness, has been brought on to work on the original script by Chris Murphy. The report is unclear as to whether Conrad has been asked to make major changes to the script or simply provide some touch-ups, but given that the film is set to begin production in a month, I wonder just how much polish the script needs before it’s considered ready.

As you probably recall, The Pursuit of Happyness starred Will Smith, the father of Jayden Smith who is taking over the Ralph Maccio role from the original film. Has Conrad been brought in to recapture some of the emotional depth that helped The Pursuit of Happyness earn $300M worldwide? One of the most endearing aspects of the original Karate Kid was the sincerity of the relationship between Maccio’s character and Pat Morita’s Mr. Miyagi. Will Jackie Chan and Jayden Smith be able to recapture that dynamic?

All in all, I’m still not totally on board for a Karate Kid remake. Call me sentimental, but there’s just too much to like about the original to justify retelling the story.

What do you think? Does Conrad’s addition to the production ease some of your concerns, or are you still unsure?

Source: THR via JoBlo

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Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – June 4, 2009

Niall Browne — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:33:55 +0000

In this Mid week’s Wrap up: Javier Bardem eyes Wall Street; The Cox’s Scream again; Henson does Kung-Fu; Jones goes from Moon to The Deep; Robert Pattinson and Pierce Brosnan Remember Me and we get an eyeful of Bruce Willis’ Dicks.

1. No Wall Street For Old Men.

Oliver Stone and 20th Century Fox want Javier Bardem to star opposite Michael Douglas and Transformer 2 Shia LaBeouf in Wall Street 2.
Whilst Bardem hasn’t met with Stone or the studio as of yet, the Spanish star is at the top of their wish list to play the villain in the sequel to the Oscar-winning hit.

Apparently the plot of the movie involves LaBeouf’s character seeking revenge on (what would be) Bardem’s evil stock trader. In order to navigate the choppy waters of Wall Street the kid befriends Douglas’ Gordon Gecko who has been released from prison following the shenanigans of the first film. The pair form an unlikely friendship as Gecko tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter, who is the fiance of LaBeouf’s character.

The original is a highly-rated 1980’s classic (though a bit dated) and I’m interested to see what Stone, Douglas et al bring to the table in these troubled financial times.

Wall Street 2 starts shooting in August, hopefully for a February 2010 release.

Source: Deadline Hollywood

2. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Courteney Cox Arquette and David Arquette are in negotiations for Scream 4 (or whatever they end up calling it). It’s expected that the couple will only have cameos or supporting roles in the film that is being aimed at a younger demographic.

Kevin Williamson is penning the Scream 4 script (and allegedly two more sequels that would form a companion trilogy to the 90’s franchise).

There’s no word on whether director Wes Craven will Scream again or if Neve Campbell will return.

Source: Entertainment Weekly

3. Taraji P. Henson has joined the cast of The Kung-Fu Kid.
Henson will play the mother of Jaden (son of Will) Smith, who plays the titular kid.
Jackie Chan is signed-on play the 21st Century Mr. Myiagi, who has incidentally been renamed Mr Han in this remake of the 80’s coming-of-age drama, The Karate Kid.

I still ask the question – why?

Source: Slash Film

4. Moon director Duncan Jones will direct Escape From the Deep.
According to Variety:

“Escape” tells the (true) story of a legendary World War II U.S. navy submarine that sank after a torpedo malfunction, leaving the crew stranded on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Faced with drowning, nine men made it out alive after swimming the 180 feet to the surface without getting the bends.”

Alex Kershaw wrote the script from his book of the same name.

FYI: Jones is the son of legendary recording artist David Bowie.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

5. Twilight’s Robert Pattinson, along with Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Lost’s Emilie de Ravin and possibly Lena Olin will star in Allen Coulter’s Remember Me.

“Pattinson plays a young man whose brother’s suicide has split up his parents (Brosnan and Olin) and left him sleepwalking through life. De Ravin will play a young woman who, after watching her mother get killed before her eyes, seizes life to its fullest. Cooper is being courted to play her father.”

Sounds like Oscar bait.

Source: Variety

6. Shooting has started on Kevin Smith’s A Couple of Dicks and Total Film had some onset snaps of the production. Check out one below:

Bruce Willis looks exactly like…er…Bruce Willis!

Kevin Pollack has recently joined the cast of the comedy that already includes Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott and Adam Brody.

(P.S. – look at that photo, do Willis and Morgan make for an odd couple or what?)

Source: Total Film

That’s it for now. See you at the movies.

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Karate Kid Remake Plot Details Revealed

Ross Miller — Wed, 06 May 2009 17:23:38 +0000

Just one of the many remakes in the works is of the classic 1980’s movie The Karate Kid, reportedly renamed the Kung Fu Kid (urgh….). Will Smith’s son Jaden has already been announced as playing this version’s Daniel (played in the original by Ralph Macchio), and Jackie Chan will be playing the remake’s Mr. Myagi (seriously…).

So what about the plot of the movie? Well, according to a couple of people who are involved with the project, it’s similar in tone to the original, but differs greatly in a lot of areas. The story is about a single mother and her son Dre (young Smith) who move to Beijing, China because of her job. Needless to say, she and Dre find it difficult adjusting and before long, Dre starts getting bullied at school.

Because of his bruises from being beaten up, the principal of the strict school he now attends thinks he has been the one picking the fights. The Mr. Myagi of the movie, who will now be called Mr. Han (played by Chan), is the maintenance man of the building Dre and his mother are living. After noticing Dre practicing martial arts in front of a video game, as well as his black eye, he agrees to train him in Kung Fu, as well as helping him learn Chinese.

For the full plot synopsis you can visit the MovieHole link at the end of the post.

I have said it before and I’ll say it again: This is a movie that does not need to be remade. Although, of course, we’ll still have the original there if the remake ends up being bad, but it may lead a whole generation of movie goers to think of this movie when the name “Karate Kid” gets brought up.

Of course, the reported name change to the Kung Fu Kid may remedy that, but that then removes a lot of the name recognition it would have had if they had just kept it as The Karate Kid. To me it’s a lose-lose situation and I see little about it that defines it as worthwhile.

The plot outline they’ve got for it isn’t necessarily the worst idea in the world, but is it me or does it seem a little bit cheesy? Undoubtedly the same could be said about the original, but it has to be remembered that that was in the ’80s, a very different movie-going age than what we have today. The cheesiness of the original, and many other movies from that time is readily accepted nowadays looking back because that’s the era they came from, and the cheesiness is most likely held as part of it’s charm.

It sounds like they’re trying to replicate the flavor of the original while putting a modern stamp on it. That, added to the fact that Harald Zwart (Agent Cody Banks, Pink Panther 2) is directing and first-timer Chris Murphy is writing, I just don’t know if it is going to work out.

What do you think of the plot put together for this remake? Are you in favor of a remake of it at all?

The Karate Kid remake (supposedly entitled the Kung Fu Kid) is hoped to be released sometime next year.

Source: MovieHole

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‘The Karate Kid’ Remake Retitled ‘The Kung Fu Kid’

Ross Miller — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:30:24 +0000

The trend of messing with our childhoods just seems to keep steam rolling on, no matter how much complaining fans do. One of the latest is a remake of the 1984 classic, The Karate Kid. The news recently broke that Will Smith’s son, Jaden, will be starring in the lead role, with Jackie Chan starring as the updated version of Mr Miyagi. It’s also come to light that this film won’t be a remake of the original: the screenplay will “borrow elements” from the original film but is not a remake.

And, to make that difference clear, the filmmakers have gone so far as to rename the film. So what are they renaming it? Well, according to Chan: “They don’t want to call it Karate Kid any more… They want to call it The Kung Fu Kid.”

So they’re remaking The Karate Kid, fine. And they’re casting Will Smith’s son as the titular character, okay. And they’ve even got Jackie Chan as the new Mr. Miyagi, great! But The Kung Fu Kid? Are they serious?! The filmmakers must’ve been reading all of the movie websites (such as our very own Screen Rant) to cover their backs with that one, eh?…

Film Drunk mentioned The Kung Fu Kid as a possible title for the project over a year ago, but now it’s looking like that’s what it’s going to be. With it the filmmakers have kind of neutered themselves, contradicting themselves in the most stupid of ways: they’re remaking a famous film, presumably hoping to capitalize on the name recognition of those who loved the original as kids, and then they go and give it a different title, effectively removing said name recognition.

Our friends over at First Showing point out the fact that the martial art of Karate actually has some of its historical roots in Kung Fu, so the reason they may be changing the name instead is to be more “culturally relevant and accurate.”

Hmmm, okay, I guess I can buy that – but you gotta’ admit, the title of The Kung Fu Kid sounds pretty silly, to say the least.

The Karate Kid is one of those movies that gets overshadowed by its many sequels (which steadily diminished in quality from the original). And much like the Rocky series, people seem to forget that the original Karate Kid film wasn’t just one of those fun, entertaining, “you like it because you remember it from childhood” type of movies; it’s actually a respectable film of decent quality that even got nominated for an Oscar (for Pat Morita’s legendary performance as Mr. Miyagi).

It’s yet another one of those classic movies that just doesn’t need another sequel, let alone a remake “re-imagining.” Didn’t Hollywood learn from the tried and failed The Next Karate Kid?

What are your thoughts on the title The Kung Fu Kid, and about the general notion of them doing another Karate Kid?

Sources: FirstShowing.net, /Film and Filmdrunk

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