Jaden Smith Is Karate-Chopping His Way to Stardom
Monday, November 10th, 2008
So, Columbia Pictures is remaking The Karate Kid … as a star vehicle for Will Smith’s progeny, Jaden.
The film will be produced by Jerry Weintraub (who launched the original franchise) and Overbrook Entertainment’s James Lassiter, Will Smith and Ken Stovitz. Will Smith, who is the 10-year-old actor’s father, co-starred alongside Jaden in his feature debut, “The Pursuit of Happyness,” which Overbrook and Escape Artists produced for Columbia.
The script is being written by Chris Murphy, and the film will shoot next year in Beijing and other cities. While the new film will be set in that exotic locale, it will borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied youth learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor.
China Film Group Corp. will co-produce in China.
The younger Smith, who next stars in “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” is a martial arts practitioner.
Dude, I’d be famous, too, if Will Smith were my father, pulling every imaginable string to put me in the public eye and create a level of fame for me that I’m in no way equipped to handle, allowing the world to cast a larger-than-life image on me that I’m too young to differentiate from the person I actually am, leading to a lifelong and painful struggle to become this non-existent, impossible person I feel I ought to be. Instead, I had a dad who cared about my best interests. No fair.
