From ew, ...in the way that we're not outraged at all!
Let's back up a bit. In January, EW reported that Jackie Chan was taking on the Mr. Miyagi-type role in the planned remake of the 1984 hit The Karate Kid, with Will Smith producing and his 10-year-old son Jaden Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still) on board to wax on and wax off as the eponymous Karate Kid. Except, according to Chan in a recent interview with New Zealand outlet 3 News, the younger Smith will be known as The Kung Fu Kid instead.
A rep for Columbia Pictures tells EW that, in fact, the film's title has yet to be decided -- which is fine, since, either way, I'm not exactly sure what the big, swan-kicking deal is. From The Matrix to Kung Fu Panda, kung fu is certainly far more hip and now a martial art than that musty old karate your grandpa jabbers on about. Besides, the geekosphere consensus seems to be that naming the film Kung Fu Kid would keep the original Karate Kid unsullied by Hollywood's crass campaign to besmirch every single beloved 1980s childhood touchstone...because that certainly never happened with The Karate Kid Part II, The Karate Kid Part III, or The Next Karate Kid, starring a pre-Beverly Hills 90210 Hilary Swank in the title role.
Of course, I am the same writer who got his knickers all be-twiddled over the plans to make another movie based on the board game Clue, so it's not like I'm carrying loads of moral authority on keeping things in perspective. What do you think, P-Dubs? Is Kung Fu Kid a better title? Should they be remaking this movie at all? Or do you just feel kids of the 1980s have a seriously warped perspective on what made for "good" movies back in the days of Reagan, Rambo, and Howard the Duck?
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