The Karate Kid remake, starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, announced a sequel shortly after its opening weekend greatly exceeded expectations, banking $56 million – surpassing the production’s budget of $40 million handedly. The film ultimately grossed nearly $300 million worldwide, and it would seem the producers have their pick of screenwriters for the sequel. Read the full story

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File this under movies that write themselves. Deadline reports that Disney has picked up a script from  Ahmet Zappa and Michael Wilson called Monster Witness Relocation Program. While no official casting details have been announced, the film is being developed with Jaden Smith in mind. Read the full story

The constant influx of reboots, remakes, updates, sequels, spin-offs, prequels and adaptations have undoubtedly begun to wear down the filmgoers of the world. How can we distinguish a by-the-numbers rehash with a fresh cinematic experience? When the lines start to blur I find it hard to care anymore. Read the full story

A new trailer has been released for Harald Zwart‘s (One Night at McCool’s, Pink Panther 2) reboot/remake/reimagining of the The Karate Kid.The film stars Jackie Chan, Jaden Smith and Taraji P. Henson. Check it out below or over on Yahoo in HD. Read the full story

And now, the news you’ve all been waiting for. Or not. Either way, this The Karate Kid remake, starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, does look slightly more promising than the early news led to believe. The biggest reason for this is the apparent training sequence that takes place on the Great Wall of China.

And the updated plot: “Jaden Smith plays Dre, a skateboarding video game buff who is forced to move to China after his single mother (Taraji P. Henson) is forced to transfer to the China for work. Of course, unable to speak Chinese, Dre finds it hard to settle in, and gets beat up by the local bully. Jackie Chan plays Mr. Han (the Mr. Miyagi character), a maintenance man who spots Dre’s black-eye and offers to teach him both martial arts and Chinese, so he can defend against the students of Li Quan Ha’s Fighting dragon school of Kung-Fu. [Slash Film]”

Sure it follows the same principles as the original film, but changes the setting and is apparently making the most of it.

The filmmakers have also changed the names: Chan is Mr. Han and Smith is Dre. This is me wiping the sweat off my brow in relief that the original names would try to be salvaged. Smart move indeed to disregard them.

And who’s this cutie Jaden Smith is pushing, so lovingly, in to the water fountains. A young love interest perhaps?

The Karate Kid opens June 11, 2010

What do you think of these photos? Are you excited for this movie?

Risky Biz Blog reported today that writer Steven Conrad (The Pursuit of Happyness) has been hired to scribe the recently-announced reboot of The Karate Kid, being produced by Will Smith (Hancock). Smith’s son Jaden will be playing Dre, a similar character to that of Ralph Macchio’s Daniel in the original. Jackie Chan joins the cast as Mr. Miyagi (originally played by Pat Morita) and Taraji P. Henson starring as Sherry, Dre’s mother.

I haven’t been keeping track of my reboots lately so the fact that there even is a reboot going into production of The Karate Kid took me by surprise. Frankly, I am sad to see that the idea of the reboot has extended past the comic book movie genre. Some things just should not be made.

What do you think about this latest update on the reboot? Would The Karate Kid work for today’s audiences?