Woo Woo! The Nepotism Express is in town! It’s no surprise that the Jaden Smith vehicle The Karate Kid is getting a sequel being that it inexplicably did rather well at the box office but the writing has now been passed over to The Incredible Hulk scribe Zak Penn following the departure of Cyrus Voris and Ethan Reiff (Kung Fu Panda 2).
There are no plot details yet but the rumour mill has it that it’ll see an inversion of the plot from orginal sequel which saw Ralph Macchio travel to Japan and instead will be set on US soil. Perhaps they can find new and interesting ways to be disrespectful to an ancient culture.
The script was all go 18 months ago but there’s been little movement on it yet which probably accounts for why the studio has decided to inject some new blood into the project. Penn’s had quite a bit of experience in the superhero genre has not only written the most recent Hulk movie but also contributed to X-Men 2 and 3. There’s no word on whether he’ll be starting from scratch on the Karate Kid sequel or working with what Voris and Reiff already had.
As before it’ll be produced by Will Smith, who’s currently busy ensuring that all his offspring have media futures regardless of talent. Presumably Jackie Chan will also be involved at some stage.
