Jackie Chan was out talking about his role in the new Karate Kid movie last week, and his interview with 3news has now been picked up by several different sources. According to Jackie, even though it’s a Karate Kid remake, they aren’t calling it Karate Kid.
Instead, Chan says they want to call it Kung Fu Kid. Jackie is set to play the role of Mr. Miyagi in the movie and Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith will be the new Karate… er Kung Fu Kid.
If you’re a Karate Kid purist uptight about the remaking of a beloved childhood classic, then maybe this is good news. Changing the name to something else makes it pretty easy to simply ignore it and pretend this has nothing at all to do with the original Ralph Macchio movie. It also sort of makes sense since Karate is these days, a pretty 80s word. It’s all about Kung Fu or whatever it is they call that Brazilian grabass stuff going on over at the Spike channel.
The name change is a somewhat strange move for the studio though. Generally, a good part of the reason any studio embarks on a remake is for name recognition. They know people have fond memories of Karate Kid and so when they see that name up there on the marquee again, like a horse taught to return to the barn when his cowboy whistles, they’ll line up all over again. Changing the name erases the possibility of that Pavlovian response earning them a few extra shekels at the box office.
