I don’t think anyone’s particularly excited about the Karate Kid being remade as a vehicle for Will Smith’s son Jaden, but here’s some good news: It’s not really a redo. Moviehole has the inside track on the project and they’ve uncovered all sorts of very specific details about what they have planned. Among them, that Smith is using the original more as a loose template to make something somewhat similar but also different. Better that than watching Jaden re-enact Ralph Macchio’s greatest hits.
Word is that while the story’s mostly the same, a kid moves to a new city and suffers the beatings of Bullies, the setting is different. They’ve moved the location to China which gives the whole thing a different tone. This time the main character isn’t Daniel, but Dre (Jaden Smith). The name is different but he’s still a skateboarding video game addict. It’s weird to think that even though the kids who loved the original Karate Kid are now having kids of their own, their kids are still into basically the same things. That stereotype still works just as well now, if not better, than it did back then.
Mr. Miyagi has been renamed Han and will of course, be played by Jackie Chan. He teaches Dre not only Karate but Chinese. John Kreese is now Li Quan Ha, owner of the Fighting dragon school of Kung-Fu.
Click over to MH for more detail on how the new Karate Kid will play out.
