14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Will Smith announced his intention of producing a remake of the 1984 classic “Karate Kid,” fans have been growing more and more upset by the details emerged surrounding the production. The most recent announcement that the remake will be nothing like the original, yet will go by the same title in what has been labeled an attempt to “lure” fans into seeing it, has done nothing to quiet spirits down, with fans taking to the Internet to vent their frustration.
Will Smith is only using the film to promote his son’s career and cares nothing about the legacy, which is a guarantee that he’ll do anything to launch it, even if that means risking to upset millions of fans, they say. Will Smith, who would otherwise produce a great film, as he has more than proved his abilities on countless occasions, is set to ruin a widely popular and appreciated classic just because his son has big dreams of becoming a big actor and has his eyes set precisely on “Karate Kid,” fans believe. What’s even worse, Will Smith will ruin “Karate Kid” while pretending not to do so.
“The film’s plot is broadly the same as the original 1984 film, but with many little differences. The Daniel Larusso character, played by Jaden Smith, has been renamed Dre and is a skateboarding video game buff. With the fear of layoffs looming over her US job, Dre’s single mother accepts an offer to transfer to the China office. Of course, unable to speak Chinese, Dre finds it hard to settle in, and gets beat [sic] up by the local bully. The Mr. Miyagi character has been renamed Mr. Han, played by Jackie Chan, spots a black-eyed Dre practicing martial-arts kicks as part of a Wii-style video game and agrees to teach him both martial arts and Chinese. The John Kreese’ character has been renamed Li Quan Ha, and is now the owner of the Fighting dragon school of Kung-Fu. […]” SlashFilm says of the “Karate Kid” new flick.
Shockingly enough, while pretending to only use the original story as a backbone for the new one, the fact that the Will Smith-produced flick keeps the same title while also sticking to approximately the same story has already prompted fans to declare that they have lost even the tiniest trace of interest in the pic. The guys over at MovieHole, for instance, who are the same that scooped out all the details above, declare out and loud that they’re as excited about the idea of a “Karate Kid” remake as they are of contracting the swine flu. As it happens, they’re not alone when they say this.
As of now, somehow defying all this controversy, Columbia Pictures has not yet set a release date for the film. However, it is believed that the pre-production stage is almost over, and that shooting will start in China in the following months. For more on this, keep an eye on this space.