Brian Damage
03-31-2009, 12:13 AM
Last year it was announced that Columbia Pictures was remaking the 1984 classic Karate Kid with Jaden Smith set to star. In January, we announced that Jackie Chan had been cast as the lovable Mr. Miyagi, stepping in for Pat Morita. As far as I know, not a single person was excited by any of this news, but of course Sony is pushing forward with the production in hopes of convincing audiences later with marketing. Well, a good friends of ours dropped by with a tip recently letting us know that in a recent interview with Jackie Chan, he let slip that this remake is actually going to be called Kung Fu Kid, not Karate Kid.
"They don't want to call it Karate Kid any more," Chan said. "They want to call it The Kung Fu Kid." He quickly changed topics and unfortunately didn't add any more about as to why this change was being made. Our guess is that since this remake is a Chinese co-production and being shot in Beijing, it's much more relevant today to use kung fu as opposed to karate (which isn't as popular as it was back in the 80's) and also more appropriate considering karate actually has its historical roots in kung fu. As in, story updates and Chinese influence caused them to change the title to be more culturally relevant and accurate.
If you're actually big Jackie Chan fan, a great interview can be seen over on 3news.co.nz. He talks about how he's trying to change his image and become more of an "actor who can fight" not a "fighter who can act." It's actually a really heartfelt interview and it reminds me why I love him so much. Hopefully this news about the title actually sheds some positive light on the production, although I doubt it will.
http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/03/29/jackie-chans-karate-kid-remake-to-be-called-kung-fu-kid/
"They don't want to call it Karate Kid any more," Chan said. "They want to call it The Kung Fu Kid." He quickly changed topics and unfortunately didn't add any more about as to why this change was being made. Our guess is that since this remake is a Chinese co-production and being shot in Beijing, it's much more relevant today to use kung fu as opposed to karate (which isn't as popular as it was back in the 80's) and also more appropriate considering karate actually has its historical roots in kung fu. As in, story updates and Chinese influence caused them to change the title to be more culturally relevant and accurate.
If you're actually big Jackie Chan fan, a great interview can be seen over on 3news.co.nz. He talks about how he's trying to change his image and become more of an "actor who can fight" not a "fighter who can act." It's actually a really heartfelt interview and it reminds me why I love him so much. Hopefully this news about the title actually sheds some positive light on the production, although I doubt it will.
http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/03/29/jackie-chans-karate-kid-remake-to-be-called-kung-fu-kid/