Despite its hefty success at the box office, work on a sequel to 2010’s reboot of The Karate Kid (now with kung fu instead!) has been slow going, with several writers taking a crack at the script. Sony has now taken things a step further by hiring a director in the shape of The Crazies’ Breck Eisner.
The new iteration of the underdog story found Jaden Smith inheriting Ralph Macchio’s mantle of the kid who learnsself-defence and a few life lessons from a wise mentor. Jackie Chan took over for Pat Morita, playing kung fu expert Mr. Han, a man with a troubled past. Harald Zwart was the director for the 2010 film, but it appears he’s busy throwing his energy into the Mortal Instruments films, a task we do not envy him.
Eisner’s had a mixed career as a director so far, launching with a damp box office squib in Sahara and boosting himself back up with** The Crazies**, which remade the horror title**. Since then, he’s mostly been attached to projects in development including Vin Diesel fantasy action pic The Last Witch Hunter and another chiller redo, The Brood**. If the new Karate Kid is a success, it could give him a fresh boost. First, of course, he has to make the thing…
So far, writers including Cyrus Voris, Ethan Ruff and Zack Penn have waxed on and off over the script and development has been a slow process. Could this be the jump-kickstart it needs?