Will THE KARATE KID Be THE KUNG FU KID Even If It's THE KARATE KID??

Merrick here...
Since the film was first announced, there's been a bit of uncertainty regarding the title of THE KARATE KID remake. Logically, one would think the title should reference whatever discipline Jackie Chan teaches Will Smith's kid in the movie. Evidently, the matter isn't that simple. MTV spoke with Jackie Chan about the title in an article you can find HERE:

“We just finished the movie, ‘Karate Kid,’” Jackie Chan told me Wednesday at the People’s Choice Awards. “Um, the ‘Kung Fu Kid.’” Say what? Over the course of the film’s shooting, rumors had leaked that since the film is set in China, the title would reference Kung Fu (a Chinese discipline) instead of karate (a Japanese form of martial arts). But the recent first trailer for the movie ended with a title card that read “The Karate Kid.” Which seems odd, since technically Jaden Smith won't be doing any karate in the movie. “I don’t know [what it’s going to be called],” Chan admitted of the film, which is due to hit theaters in June. “Probably ‘Kung Fu Kid’ in China and ‘Karate Kid’ in America. Maybe a different title? I don’t know. But mostly we’ve called it ‘The Kung Fu Kid.’”

I hear that the broadest movements of John Avildsen's 1984 original are followed in the new version, but that it's texturally different as a whole. The trailer shows us many familiar elements, though: If this is really different from the original, maybe they should go with KUNG-FU KID to make the film stand alone/more distinctive? Of course, naming it KUNG FU KID might also make it seem too derivative. Shrugs.
--- Follow Merrick on Twitter! ---