Rumours regarding Jaden Smith as the new Karate Kid were not long ago said to be completely false. According to multiple sources today however; Jaden Smith will indeed be the next Karate Kid when the John G. Avildsen directed 1984 film is remade.
Jaden is of course the son of Will Smith, and made his acting debut in 2006 when he starred in The Pursuit of Happyness playing (rather fittingly) the son of his father. The film is to be produced by a team of four, consisting of Jerry Weintraub, James Lassiter, Ken Stovitz and Will Smith, with a script being written by Chris Murphy. It’ll be interesting to see what this team make of the film, and given the age of Jaden Smith (10); it looks as though The Karate Kid is to be completely reworked and retargeted for this remake, presumably with a much younger audience in mind.
Will the film actually work though? Well, that’s yet to be seen, it certainly seems as though it’ll be very different to the original though, and whether this will turn out to be a good thing or bad; we’ll just have to wait to find out.
Jaden Smith is a very talented actor and whether the film is a success or not; this should be the start of a very long and successful career for young Jaden. Jaden Smith is all set to appear in The Day the Earth Stood Still soon, a Scott Derrickson directed remake which also stars Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, and John Cleese amongst others; his career is really starting to take form right now and The Karate Kid should be the film to really send Jaden Smith into Hollywood’s A-list. He may only be 10 years old, but already he has much to offer as an actor and it’ll be interesting to see how he tackles this huge role of becoming the new Karate Kid, a part in which all eyes will be on him and expectation will be colossal.
UK based film graduate with a huge passion for music, sports and video games.
