Ralph Macchio: No one told me about ‘The Next Karate Kid’ or 2010 remake
nypost.com“Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me.”“I saw it in the newspaper,” Macchio continues. “They went with a different writer, a different director and a different actor for the protagonist.”Actress Hilary Swank, making her first appearance in a starring role, portrayed Julie Pierce, replacing Macchio as LaRusso.
Actor Noriyuki “Pat” Morita reprised his role as martial-arts mentor Mr. Miyagi.The exclusion seemingly landed like a roundhouse kick to Macchio’s gut.“To this day, for whatever reason, I have not viewed that movie curtain-to-curtain,” Macchio writes. “I have only seen it in pieces when scrolling through movie channels on television.
It was strange for me, as I wasn’t in contact with anyone from the franchise during those years.”“The Next Karate Kid” was widely panned, garnering a 7% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes, where critics slammed it as an “unnecessary” fourth installment in the venerable franchise.
It reportedly made less than $9 million domestically — the least successful of the series to date, including in the 2010 remake of “The Karate Kid” starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.But critics praised Swank’s performance, with the Los Angeles Times declaring she “really might be a find” in its review.Years later, in 2008, Macchio found out that a remake to the 1984 original cult classic was in the works, with Hollywood stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith serving as producers and their son Jaden in the lead.
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