First pics of Jackie Chan in ‘Kung Fu Kid’

By Mark Pollard | Published September 15, 2009

Images from the set of producer Will Smith’s remake of THE KARATE KID have appeared online depicting 11-year-old Jaden Smith (Will’s son) and action superstar Jackie Chan training on a dock.

KUNG FU KID (2010) KUNG FU KID (2010)

Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith on the set of KUNG FU KID.

Officially re-titled KUNG FU KID, this co-production between China Film Group and Columbia Pictures began shooting in the second week of July in Beijing and has since moved production to Wudang Mountain in Hubei.

According to Chan when writing on his official site, Jaden spent at least two months prior to the start of production training in martial arts with the film’s stunt coordinator Wu Gang. Chan relayed glowing praise for his co-star.

I have seen many young children learn martial arts, but I have never met anyone like him. He learned many Chinese phrases for the different movements of kung fu. When Wu Gang asked Jaden to show me, he barked out his orders in Mandarin. Jaden immediately understood what was asked of him and performed it. When he was thirsty, he gave the traditional hand gesture, putting one fist into the palm of the other, bowed and asked permission to drink some water.

Not only was he hard working, he was respectful, focused and really good! I couldn’t believe it. He showed me every exercise Wu Gang had taught him and finished the demonstration with the “drunken kung fu routine” from one of my own films, DRUNKEN MASTER. He put my son to shame! I provided my son with the best martial artists in the world, and he could not be persuaded to try it. In just two months, Jaden had learned so much. He is truly a talented boy. He could sing, break dance, play ping pong, and now he can do stunts!

A veteran of Jackie Chan’s stunt team since SHANGHAI NOON, Wu recently finished choreographing stunts for Chan’s Hollywood comedy THE SPY NEXT DOOR and Chan’s upcoming period comedy BIG SOLDIER.

In KUNG FU KID, Jaden plays Dre, a boy who travels to China with his mother (Taraji P. Henson) where he is bullied by local youths until a handyman, played by Chan, trains the boy in kung fu.

The film, which deviates from the original KARATE KID, was written by Steve Conrad (THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS) and is being directed by Harald Zwart (THE PINK PANTHER 2).

Source: WENN.com via Mail Online

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  • Cobra_Kai
    How can Will Smith demolish a classic? Put his son and Jackie Chan in it. Way to go you butcher!! I'll be rooting for Johnny to kick little Jayden's behind! "Get him a body bag"
  • shaosam
    How much do you want to bet that some version of the song "Kung Fu Fighting" will be in the soundtrack?
  • crosenblum
    Cute kid...
  • mistermjones2000
    Weighting in on Mr. Chan's comment about his son, I see a father disappointed in his son's decision not to follow in his martial footsteps. I imagine right now JayCee is missing Brandon who would have been able to support what I believe to be a son of a legend always being expected to live up to his father's ability and wanting no part of that pressure. Watching his son's theactrical perfomances (particularly INVISIBLE TARGET) neither Mr. Chan nor his son JayCee have anything to be ashamed of. It is hard for any parent (Chinese or not) to have hopes and aspiratiions for their children (and in their own judgement) see their children fall short of their potential. Universally it is hard for partents to "let go" and allow the next generation to go their own way.
    Celebrity only makes this phenomenon more difficult eg. Joe Jackson vs. Michael Jackson.

    Culturally parents "badmouthing" their children is usually done to not be perceived as being overly proud of themselves and their children. It is a public "face" and not always indicative of their true feelings towards their offspring. Again this is not strictly a Chnese thing: Hello, Mr. Cosby.
  • zetaGundam
    You can wear a uniform and do martial arts but as a student at the end of the day if you cant fight in a suit or bare back then your not a fighter. But as PurpleCobra74 when your in a gong or a dojo you wear the uniform for respect for you school and your teacher but must be able to fight in whatever you are wearing regardless
  • PurpleCobra74
    Is that the best they could do. Get the guy who directed Pink Panther 2?
    When will Jackie work will a real director in Hollywood?
  • danielzelter
    He kind of got a real director on Forbidden Kingdom.
  • Goldie_Hawn_Golden_Shower
    Kent- the traditional attire people would wear when training and committed to martial arts has nothing to do with an actual street fight or fighting, but out of respect and oath including great discipline.... If every jackass comes in a martial arts studio with their street clothes to study, then there is no point in me to come to work with my uniform on but just my street clothes; see the difference now? So if a person wears a karate outfit as suppose to a person wearing street clothes would the student in a uniform fair in a fight less? I don't agree with your logic at all..
  • Kent
    That's where you're wrong. "Traditionally"--by which I mean when the Asian martial arts were purely an Asian thing and not discovered (or commercialized) by the West, martial arts training involved people sweating and grunting and wearing clothes that were loose and were not so nice or expensive as to be damaged by sweat, blood, tearing, ripping, etc. In other words, workout clothes, much as Western athletes might wear a grungy T-shirt and loose shorts while they work out.

    With the exception of heavy gi's used in grappling and throwing styles such as judo and jujitsu, people back in the day pretty much trained in the equivalent of a grungy T-shirt and shorts. Even the karate "gi" (lighter than judo gis) is basically an undergarmet that was worn underneath traditional Japanese attire. (Obviously, grappling and throwing arts required special clothing, but that was for function and not "to show respect" or any such nonsense like that.

    And it might interest you to know that in wing chun schools in Chicago and Hong Kong, training is STILL done in street clothes. In Hong Kong, businessmen have been known to come in, take off their suit jacket and tie, and then get right into training. In the school where I trained, I customarily wore jeans, a T-shirt and whatever shoes I happened to be wearing that day -- usually biker boots. And everyone else dressed similarly. Train in what you'll be probably wearing when you fight.

    And you know what? It worked out just fine. Nobody had any less respect for our teacher, and everyone trained just as hard.

    Training clothes should be about practicality. Not ceremony. Of course, because Westerners expect to see those fancy uniforms, and because martial arts schools are often about profits, marketing and meeting customer expectations, most commercial schools do use uniforms.
  • danielzelter
    Jaden looks like he's taking the moves seriously, but I'm not sure those are the right clothes for training. Still, it'd be kind of cool if someone youtubed that drunken fist thing. Anyway, it's not exactly nice for Jackie to bad-mouth Jayce like that, though he may not mean it that way.
  • I would venture a guess that the two are in everyday clothing because Chan's character doesn't run a school or teach formally.

    I am curious to know if Jaden's character will end up competing in formal wushu matches at the end. That was a key point of the original film. Daniel chose to fight his foes in the ring in a controlled environment which is the right message kids interested in martial arts should be learning.
  • danielzelter
    Well, I guess I learned a few new things.
  • Kent
    On the contrary. Loose shorts, comfortable shoes, and a T shirt? It's hard to get clothes that are MORE appropriate for training. For anyone who wants to learn practical martial arts, those silly jackets, silken pants and stupid slippers are just about useless for training.

    As close as possible, you should train in the kinds of clothes you wear every day and will likely be wearing in if you should ever be forced to fight.

    As for Jackie's comments about his son: it's probably true, and in either case, it's a fairly standard thing for a Chinese parent to badmouth his/her child. Every Chinese parent I've met, including my own, does it.
  • Whydoesitmatter?
    I wonder after this comes out will disney give Jaden an action show similar to what Ernie Jr. had (sidekicks). This will no doubt increase the desire to study martial arts among kids along with the new teenage mutant ninja turtles movie.
  • mistermjones2000
    Xie xie. This sounds so much better in development than "a remake of the KARATE KID" that I am impressed. Evidently the producers wanted to give the proper respect to their source material while still producing something worth watching. I am looking forward to this remake. Hou hui you qi.
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