Donnie Yen is confirmed for the lead role in the movie remake of the television series, starting David Caradine. Donnie is 60, a bit old for the part but, otherwise, an ideal choice, if you've ever seen the original "Ip Man". Caradine was actually a dancer, and did the best he could with a weekly show on a shoe string budget, but we'll just have to wait and see what they can do in a modern remake, with a serious budget. The original show started introducing more magic after the first two seasons, but Taoist monks are famous for their magical abilities, and modern remake would have to incorporate some magic to be faithful to the original. If Donnie starts flying through the air like Mary Poppins, they better have good choreography.
I watched a few of the old series. It was a welcome change from all the other crappy TV series at the time, and a new take on Westerns. It was also a time when Western minds were opening up to the East and other cultures. So it spiked interest in the martial arts. I think the studio saw the success and interest in Bruce Lee and wanted a series that explored the philosophy behind the art.
Star Trek is a Space Western, and Deep Space 9 was modeled after a railroad town in the old west. Westerns have simply dominated the genre since the first silent movie, of a train robbery and train wreak was made. The spaghetti westerns were the first to popularize magic in the genre, and Asian takes on it lend themselves to more comedy as well. These days, everything is going militant, either comic books or GI Joe, or whatever, and more salt of the earth comedy and magic are hard to find. The less the Pentagon and Wall Street inspire patriotism among half the damn population, the more interest Hollywood will have to take in alternatives like this one, and people like Micheal Yo.
The Karate Kid was hardly a big budget movie, but its audience was ready fror anything other than the bullshit we're being fed by conservatives. The stupider conservatives demand everyone become, the more the public demands they shut the fuck up, and get a life.
The karate kid was a wokefest remake of an earlier Ralph Macchio movie? Total replacement characters including a chinese mr miagi? Donnie Yen doesn't look 60 and this time around they wont be writing it week by week, they have a whole body of stuff to draw from and all the computer magic we could hope for. I'm looking forward to seeing it and I'm usually cynical about remakes. Hope its a worthy effort
They could change the story too, and just make him older, but he's the guy for the role. David Caradine's producer said he was likely the only guy on the planet who could play the role at the time, but Hong Kong could do the role more justice these days. I expect them to add some classic humor to the role too.
