The Karate Kid

[GeneChing]

Two words: sugar daddy.

Jaden Smith honored by ShoWest
'Karate Kid' star named breakthrough male of the year
By Gregg Kilday
March 12, 2010, 03:35 PM ET

Jaden Smith, who is stepping into the title role when Columbia Pictures' "The Karate Kid" is released on June 11, has been named ShoWest Breakthrough Male Star of the Year.

He'll be presented with the award Wednesday at the exhibitors' convention on being held in Las Vegas' Bally's and Paris Las Vegas hotels. ShoWest also will screen "Kid" that same day.

"Jaden Smith is an exceptional young actor who has delivered a true breakout performance with his portrayal of Dre Parker in 'The Karate Kid,' " Robert Sunshine, managing director of the event said.

In "Kid," directed by Herald Zwart, Smith will star opposite Jackie Chan.

The son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jaden Smith made his feature film debut opposite his father in "The Pursuit of Happyness" and went on to star in the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

ShoWest is produced by the Film Group of e5 Global Media, which is also the parent company of The Hollywood Reporter.

[GeneChing]

Generally positive. Very interesting.

'Karate Kid' remake screens at Showest with major studio fanfare
by Nicole Sperling

This year’s Showest has been a fairly scaled-back affair. Fewer big parties, fewer movies, more business. That wasn’t the case for Sony’s presentation of The Karate Kid yesterday, however. In addition to the big lunch the studio threw for thousands of attendees, Sony was clearly in it to win it when it came to the movie’s pre-show. Some of it no doubt had to do with their very important producers, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, waiting in the wings, but even so, this elaborate introduction included drummer and cymbal players, men in masks doing acrobatics, scores of women dressed in Asian garb lining the aisles to the theater, not to mention 12 little karate kids doing their own routine. It concluded with a shower of confetti streaming from the ceiling, carefully missing the studio executives sitting in the lower level. The act looked more like something you’d see at Comic-Con than what’s become the norm at this exhibition convention.

The film itself (which releases this June) is a worthy remake of the 1984 Ralph Macchio classic, and the delegates seemed to love it. Director Harald Zwart (Pink Panther 2, Agent Cody Banks) was able to conquer the majestic scope of China, and stars Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan form a sweet bond. Smith received what is sure to be the first of many awards for his acting when he was honored with Showest breakthrough star of the year. He took the stage in his white sneakers and said, “My dad prepared a speech for me with a bunch of funny stuff in it, but I’m 11 and I’m nervous.”

Karate Kid opens June 11 opposite The A-Team, so it’s no wonder Sony is setting the stage early with exhibition, hoping for the biggest theaters when it bows opposite the action remake of the popular ’80s TV show.

March 18, 2010
by Alex Billington
The Karate Kid

Believe it or not, I loved it. Yep, Sony decided to show their upcoming remake of The Karate Kid starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan to the exhibitor crowd at ShoWest in Las Vegas yesterday. And ****it, I loved it, even though it is a remake of one of everyone's favorites. Before I go any further, yes I've seen the original Karate Kid, and I love the original, but it's a campy 80's classic. This isn't a review since the version we saw was an early cut with a temp score, but this new Karate Kid is a wonderful contemporary homage to the original. It's an entertaining modern version of the same story, but set in an entirely different country.

Hopefully you've all seen the trailers for this by now, which got me pretty excited to begin with. Although I wasn't that impressed with Will Smith's son Jaden in The Pursuit of Happyness, he really steps it up here, not only in terms of acting, but it terms of physical prowess and martial arts skills. This kid can kick some serious ass and it was, as I was expecting, just awesome to see him train and learn from a legend like Jackie Chan. He's no Pat Morita, but Chan is a legend in his own right and he delivers a very strong and emotional performance that I haven't seen from him in years. The chemistry between Chan and Smith is just fantastic.

I don't know what else to say besides that I honestly just loved it. It was a bit long, which you may hear some complaints about from other folks who saw the movie, but I didn't think that was a big issue at all. I expect most people will go see this trying to hate it, and if that's the case, then they're obviously going to dislike it. But if you go in with an open mind, hoping to be entertained by a great movie with wonderful performances, you might enjoy as much as I did. I'll admit I was a little swayed by the use of some of The Last Samurai's score (at least I think that's what it was), since it's one of my all-time faves, but no one will hear that music in the final version. It's not entirely flawless, but I still loved the movie through and through, simple as that.

I hope those of you who are fans of the original can give this movie a chance to be great on its own. Don't try to hate it right off the bat, let it build and progress as its own movie, and you will certainly enjoy it as well!

Karate Kid gets chop from Ralph
By ALISON MALONEY
Published: 17 Mar 2010

THE original Karate Kid kicked himself out of the new movie because he didn't want to betray his fans.

RALPH MACCHIO, who played Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 movie, turned down an offer from WILL SMITH to appear in the remake starring his son JADEN.

And the actor, who recently appeared as a regular in Ugly Betty, felt a cameo would by "robbing" loyal fans of the franchise.

"I haven't been involved with the new movie other than having a conversation with Will Smith and his son Jaden, who is the new Karate Kid," he said.

"I have less of a desire to be in it or do a cameo because no one wants to see Daniel LaRusso in his forties.

"It would be like robbing the Karate Kid fans of their youth for me to be in it so I think it's best to keep it separate."

Ralph Macchio
All grown up ... Ralph now

The 47-year-old, who played the character in three movies, says he is looking forward to watching the remake but admits it will be strange to see another lad taking his place.

"I'm excited to see it but it is odd because I have been carrying this name and this character for 26 years," he admitted.

"But Will has totally re-imagined the story. I think they have been wise to do something different."

The new movie centres on a 12-year-old who moves from Detroit to China with his mum and becomes a victim of bullying.

He turns to a maintenance man and secret martial arts master, played by Jackie Chan, to teach him the ways of Kung Fu.

Karate Kid is released in July.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Ok, I still HATE the title !
I mean, is there ANY karate being done at all ???

[Tao Of The Fist]

Ok, I still HATE the title !
I mean, is there ANY karate being done at all ???

Supposedly Jaden's character was supposed to have done some karate prior to the events in the movie. I don't know since I didn't watch it (even though I was there for the premier ... oh well.)

[GeneChing]

As for the Karate vs. Kung Fu Kid, we've been over that. yutyeesam called it and his comment seems in line with the trailer. This makes perfect sense on both a marketing level and as a plot device.

There's 5 Showest clips embedded in the article below.

Watch The Karate Kid Showest 2010 Highlight Reel!
March 18th, 2010
Check out the all-new footage of The Karate Kid showcased in Sony's highlight reel at Showest 2010. In the clips you'll see footage from the Showest Awards Presentation, interview clips with star Jaden Smith, B-roll footage from the pressline, plus all new footage from the film. Take a look!

Directed by Harald Zwart, The Karate Kid stars Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith, Taraji P. Henson and come to theaters June 11th, 2010.

In Columbia Pictures' The Karate Kid, 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's (Taraji P. Henson) latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying - and the feeling is mutual - but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts "the karate kid" on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.

[GeneChing]

...silly story. More in the wake of Showest.

Jaden Smith's Karate Kid injury
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Jaden Smith stars in the remake of The Karate Kid

Jaden Smith's biggest injury on the set of The Karate Kid didn't happen during an action scene - but while he was filming a quiet moment with his love interest.

The 12-year-old - son of Hollywood actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith - stars opposite Jackie Chan in the remake of the 80s classic, as a young boy who moves to China and is bullied by a kung fu gang, and falls for a classmate, Mei Ying.

Jaden said: "The worst I got hurt was in a dialogue scene - I actually was just walking up to Mei Ying, it's the first time I ever see her, and boom, my knee was just killing me, I was like, what the heck, you know? I had to ice it and everything."

The movie was screened at the annual ShoWest convention in Las Vegas, where Jaden won the Breakthrough Male Star Of The Year award.

Will and his wife Jada produced the film, along with Jerry Weintraub, who produced the original and its sequels.

Jaden revealed: "My dad had the idea of remaking it. He's the one who was like, 'We need to make this movie'."

Will told the ShoWest audience: "It's very scary when you go back and fiddle around with a classic."

Martial arts star Chan teaches his young prodigy kung fu in the movie but Jaden said the filmmakers kept the original title out of respect for their source material and because The Karate Kid has such name recognition among audiences.

He also revealed Chan taught him to, "stay fast and stay focused"

[GeneChing]

Jackie & Jaden working it at the Kid's Choice Awards. Click for vid.

Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith and the Will Smith version of 'wax on, wax off'
March 27, 2010 | 7:51 pm

Jackie Chan was intimidated about working with Jaden Smith in the remake of "The Karate Kid"? Well heck yeah -- the little actor is Will Smith's kid!

Dad's advice to Jaden? Stay in the scene, the younger Smith said, and don't try to do it the first time, do it the first time. We'll see how he played it when the movie opens this June.

Jaden gives the rundown ...
Smith chan kca ... on his martial-arts training leading up to filming "Kid" -- check it out in the video above from the red carpet outside Nickelodeon's 23rd annual Kids' Choice Awards, and click here for a photo gallery of arrivals.

-- Amy Kaufman and Christie D'Zurilla

Original 'Karate Kid' screenwriter says fans wonder 'Why are you remaking this classic?'
March 26, 2010 | 10:56 am

Rachel Abramowitz is back on the Hero Complex with a look at the past and the future of "The Karate Kid."

The writer of 1984's "The Karate Kid" isn't flipping for this summer's remake starring young Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Karate Kid poster "It’s weird to have your films remade in your lifetime," says screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen, who has watched an Internet backlash against trailers for the June movie. "Two-thirds of the comments out there are negative: 'Why are you remaking this classic?' 'It was the movie of my childhood.' 'It was my inspirational movie.' 'Why are you remaking it? Just because Jaden is a little rich kid?’ I’m wondering if those people are going to go see it."

Kamen is best known these days as French writer-director-producer Luc Besson’s go-to collaborator on projects such as “Taken,” “The Transporter” films and “The Fifth Element,” but it's clear he has deep (and protective) affection for the 1980s coming-of-age film that starred Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita.

In that original (which spawned three sequels) Macchio plays Daniel, a high school student who moves from New Jersey to California, where he is bullied by the locals. Morita, a handyman, agrees to teach the East Coast outsider in the ways of martial arts but the lessons are about far more than fighting.

The new revival is set in China, where 11-year old Smith portrays Dre Parker, who is even more of an outsider. Jackie Chan steps in this time as the mentor. The film opens June 11.

Kamen wasn’t invited to be part of the new production, although, per Writers Guild rules, he was sent a copy of the script and received a story credit.

"The film is exactly the film I wrote," Kamen said. "They just changed a 17-year-old kid into an 11-year-old African American kid. They changed Reseda to Beijing. It’s exactly the same, scene for scene. I was surprised I didn’t get [screenwriter] credit.”

Karate Kid 2010 The structure may look familiar to Kamen, but not the tone.

“This version is much slicker." Kaman said. "This version has scope, and big scenes with kung fu and beautiful scenic shots of China."

One major thing missing is sexual frisson, Kamen points out. The first had Macchio longing for the young Elisabeth Shue. “The first one had a girl who had [breasts] and [a butt]. There was some sexual danger between these teenagers."

He added that the date-movie crowd might stay home. “I don’t know if they’re going to want to show up. It’s now a kids' movie.”

Kamen, with tongue in cheek, said he has scaled back his plan to see the new film with a celebrity date -- Macchio. “We were going to drive up to the Chinese theater in that big yellow convertible that Mr. Miyagi gives him in the movie. Now we’re just going to dinner and the movie."

-- Rachel Abramowitz

[breasts] and [a butt]... lol. Shue in her breakout role...

[GeneChing]

click for vid.

Mar 29 2010 7:09 PM EDT
'Karate Kid' Remake Has A New 'Twist,' Jackie Chan And Jaden Smith Say
Chan says the new movie pays tribute to the 1984 original but is 'different.'
By Christopher Campbell, with reporting by Matt Elias

For those "Karate Kid" fans still skeptical about this summer's remake, Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith would like to offer their assurance that the movie is something fresh worth giving a shot. MTV News caught up with the stars on the orange carpet of the Kids' Choice Awards to talk about how their redo compares to the popular 1984 original, which starred Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio in the respective lead roles.

"They should see this because it's a great movie," said Smith, the charismatic 11-year-old son of rapper-turned-actor Will Smith, who also co-produced the remake. "We have our own little twist to the movie, the fact that we're in China. But it's just a great, great movie."

What the young actor appears to be saying is, let's forget that this is a reboot of the martial-arts franchise that previously spawned three sequels, including "The Next Karate Kid," which was a sort of restart itself, and approach the movie instead as a stand-alone story about a young boy relocated to China where he learns the art of kung fu from an unlikely mentor.

Chan, who plays that mentor, thinks both time and plot changes factor into the remake's separation from its source.

"I think it's different from the first one," he said. "You will see the difference. Of course, today's technology and filming — things are always better than 30 years ago. But ['The Karate Kid'] is a traditional classic. We just pay it tribute. I think everybody will like it."

And if everybody likes it, you can bet there will be another couple sequels, at least a few of which could star a more pumped-up and physically skilled Smith.

"Before the movie, he'd been training for three months," Chan says about his co-star's preparation. "Now, he's still training every day. I just see him getting better and better, his muscles bigger and bigger. Pretty soon, three more years, he'll become a master."

Three more years and Jaden will be a master? Jackie, what are you sayin'?...

[GeneChing]

I'm amused that both Karate Kid and Red Dawn are going Chinese. That's telling for sure.

You know what the '80s means to me? ninjas.

‘Titans’ first entry in ’80s movie encore
‘Red Dawn,’ ‘The Karate Kid,’ ‘Tron’ also to get makeovers in 2010
By Glenn Whipp
updated 6:38 a.m. PT, Tues., March. 30, 2010

LOS ANGELES - "Clash of the Titans" writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi are understandably excited about their movie arriving in theaters Friday. But if you really want to get them going, mention the "Red Dawn" remake coming later this year.

"I love that movie," Hay says of the 1984 Cold War adventure flick where Colorado high school students use guerrilla warfare to stave off a Soviet invasion of America. "Everyone from my generation loves 'Red Dawn.' It's really ripe for a remake."

These days, it seems any movie that came out during the 1980s is ripe for a remake. "Clash of the Titans" and "Red Dawn" are but two of a significant number of '80s-related films Hollywood will bring to theaters in coming months.

Joining their ranks are Disney's mega-budget "Tron" sequel starring Jeff Bridges; reboots of "The Karate Kid," "Predator" and "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchises; a follow-up to Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" and the Sylvester Stallone-directed "The Expendables"; an '80s-style, men-on-a-mission movie teaming Stallone with other action stars of his vintage.

"It's crazy, man," Bridges says. "You almost want to look around and make sure people still have their cell phones and laptops. It's like going back in time."

You mean, like stepping into a Hot Tub Time Machine? The nostalgia-infused, gross-out comedy "Time Machine," which opened last weekend, uses the '80s as a punch line, taking its heroes back to a decade heavy on the legwarmers, mullets and primary colors.

"Anyone who wants to know why the '80s are a joke need only look at the fashions in our movie," "Hot Tub" director Steve Pink says.

But if the '80s are a joke, it's a quip studio executives and filmmakers are now eager to share with moviegoers. Chalk it up to the fact that the people who grew up watching Freddy Krueger and Mr. Miyagi are now in a position to green-light the movies they loved as children.

"Certainly, there's a fondness for that culture for those who come of age with it, and now we want to share it," says Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad.

In addition to "The Karate Kid," Belgrad, 44, and Columbia co-president Matt Tolmach, 45, are developing sequels and reboots to such 1980s properties as "Ghostbusters," "21 Jump Street" and "The Smurfs." 20th Century Fox will release a feature film based on the '80s action-adventure TV series "The A-Team" this summer.

"Grown-ups are always looking for movies they could share with their kids," Belgrad adds.

With "The Karate Kid," he notes, Will Smith took that idea a step further, suggesting remaking one of his favorite childhood movies with his 11-year-old son, Jaden, starring. The new "Karate Kid," due in June, shifts the action to Beijing, attempting to add a dash of culture clash to the familiar story.

"("Tron" director) Steve Lisberger told me that we've made the movie that people think they remember seeing when they were 8-years-old," says "Tron: Legacy" director Joseph Kosinski. "The original pushed the envelope in a way that we can't do. But we can take things that have been simmering in people's minds for 25 years and bring them to life."

Kosinski shot "Tron: Legacy" entirely in 3D. Warner Bros. converted "Clash of the Titans" to 3D after the fact, hoping to cash in on the "Avatar"-fueled mania for the format.

But "Clash" writer Manfredi says that what made the original so special — and what he hopes the remake maintains — is a good-hearted sense of adventure.

"What all these '80s movies have in common is a feeling of fun and excitement, a certain genuineness," Manfredi says. "You don't find that spark as much in movies these days. That's what we're hoping to bring back."

Others are attempting at stab at modern relevance with their films. Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko has been refashioned as an antihero, warning business leaders of impending doom in "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps."

The "Red Dawn" remake has the Chinese, not the Soviets, invading America.

And you have to wonder whether the Smurfs will make a passing reference to their blue-hued cousins from "Avatar."

OK — maybe you don't have to wonder or even think about the Smurfs at all.

[Lucas]

you know they are remaking ghostbusters? its going to be original cast too....

[Jimbo]

So I guess the new Red Dawn will not be playing in China...

[Zenshiite]

you know they are remaking ghostbusters? its going to be original cast too....

It's my understanding that Ghostbusters 3 will actually be all CGI realized. It's going to be an animated movie like Beowulf and voiced by the original cast.

[doug maverick]

thats entirely false unless things have dramtically changed from last i heard. the new ghost busters film will be about oscar(baby from part 2)all grown up and becoming a ghost buster, the whole cast including sigourney weaver. bill murrays character is suppose to play a ghost. at least thats what all involved have been talking about...last time i check, it couldve changed...

[Zenshiite]

That's cool. I'd heard over a year ago that Murray would only agree to it if it was CGI.

[Lucas]

perhaps they are all doing the voices. it was in the entertainment section of my local news paper, The Oregonian on i believe tuesday. it did not specify cgi or not, just said the returning of the original 3 ghost busters. i was wondering how they would pull that off. all being older and such. cgi would def be the way to go.