Columbia Pictures is back in the dojo with a new version of the 1984 hit The Karate Kid, which has been refashioned as a star vehicle for Jaden Smith.

The film will be produced by Jerry Weintraub (who launched the original franchise) and Overbrook Entertainment’s James Lassiter, Will Smith and Ken Stovitz. Will Smith, who is the 10-year-old actor’s father, co-starred alongside Jaden in his feature debut, The Pursuit of Happyness, which Overbrook and Escape Artists produced for Columbia.

The script is being written by Chris Murphy, and the film will shoot next year in Beijing and other cities. While the new film will be set in that exotic locale, it will borrow elements of the original plot, wherein a bullied youth learns to stand up for himself with the help of an eccentric mentor.

The younger Smith, who next stars in The Day the Earth Stood Still, is a martial arts practitioner.

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Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are in early discussions to collaborate on a remake of Chan Wook-park’s “Oldboy.” DreamWorks is in the process of securing the remake rights, and the new pic will be distributed by Universal.

In the 2003 Korean original, a man gets kidnapped and held in a shabby cell for 15 years without explanation. Suddenly, he’s released and given money, a cell phone and clothes and is set on a path to discover who destroyed his life so he can take revenge.

Spielberg had been looking for an opportunity to make a film with Smith, who would play the kidnapped man if all the pieces fall into place. Spielberg is looking for a writer to begin the development process.

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What in the world is Fergie wearing?

Pictured: Will Smith and wife Jada with their children Willow and Jaden, Ben Stiller and wife Christine Taylor, David Schwimmer and girlfriend Zoe Buckman,  Fergie and Toni Braxton, Chris Rock and his daughter, Debi Mazar with husband Gabriele Corcos and thier children Evelyn Giulia.

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I need to read this book!  I have had it for a couple months, but I’m so behind on all my books, I haven’t gotten to it yet!  I keep picking up books that I want to read, and I have so many of them “to read” now, I feel like I’ll never reach the end!  I’m currently reading “Friday Night Knitting Club” (which makes me want to join a knitting club, btw) and next I’m going to read “The Story of Edgar Sawtelle”.  I’m DYING to read it. I bought it several months ago, then Oprah picked it as her book – for her book club.  She had the author on the show, and now I’m even more stoked to read it.

Here is the official site for “The Secret Life of Bees”.

Anyway, back to the post at hand.  Here are the celebrities at last night’s premiere of “The Secret Life of Bees”.  Stars include Jada Pinkett Smith (Executive Producer) and Will Smith, Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson (check out the closeup on her ring!) & Nia Long.

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It is official, Warner Bros has greenlit a prequel to I Am Legend. Will Smith has signed on to reprise his role as Robert Neville, and Francis Lawrence has returned as director. Looks like Lawrence won’t be finding time to work on Chuck Palahniuk’s Survivor anytime soon. According to Variety, D.B. Weiss (The Game) is writing the script based on a detailed plot outline that was developed over the past few months by Smith, Lawrence, Akiva Goldsman (producer and screenwriter of the original).

The prequel will follow Neville in the last days before and after the man-made virus kills/mutates New York City. A sequel was considered, but obviously wouldn’t have been possible without starting over with a completely new lead character/actor. No word on if author Richard Matheson was consulted about the film. Apocalyptic stories usually sit in one of two categories, pre-Apocalyptic (ie Armageddon, Independence Day) or post-Apocalyptic (I Am Legend, Children of Men), so it will be an interesting change to see a film which might straddle both.

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As a loving mother to her three children with husband Will Smith – Trey, Jaden and Willow – Jada Pinkett Smith can draw from her experience for her role as a strong single momr on the TNT drama pilot, which she is also executive producing, Time Heals.

Pinkett Smith will play Nancy Hawthorne, which the network describes as the strong but caring director of a nursing hospital in North Carolina, a single mother who places the pain of others first.

In terms of her role off-screen, Pinkett Smith, 37, acknowledges that neither she nor Will exerts a particularly heavy hand.

“We’re not strict but we definitely believe it’s a very important component for rearing children,” she told People last month. “It creates safety for them. They understand that they need guidance.”

Still, if a member of their brood wants to sneak an extra sweet, Pinkett Smith acknowledges with a laugh that her husband is the more lenient one.

“He’s so lenient on that stuff,” she says with a sigh. “Daddy tends to [say], ‘Yeah! Have chocolate cake for dinner! It’s all right with me.’ I’ll come home and it’s just, ‘Has anyone had lunch?’ ‘Yeah, I had some Frosted Flakes!’ ”

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WENN

Jada Pinkett-Smith regrets asking husband Will Smith to take a break from acting – because he has become a do-it-yourself fanatic.

Pinkett Smith admits she “might have made a mistake” when she begged the 39-year-old star to take a one-year hiatus after he finished promoting his latest action flick Hancock this year.

She says, “It’s been tricky. We just moved into the new house not too long ago and he’s basically knocking walls down, he’s digging up stuff. He’s beating it to death… I told him, ‘Going back to work after Thanksgiving may be a good idea’.

But the actress insists Smith’s added time with the family could lead to some promising new projects for the pair.

She adds: “He decided he wanted to focus on developing projects for the family… so now it’s all of these excruciating meetings about these movies and projects for the family that he wants to develop. But, you know, that’s a beautiful thing that he wants to do that.”

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WENN