Rachel Abramowitz is back on the Hero Complex with a look at the past and the future of "The Karate Kid." 

The writer of 1984's "The Karate Kid" isn't flipping for this summer's remake starring young Jaden Smith, the son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

"It’s weird to have your films remade in your lifetime,"  says screenwriter Robert Mark Kamen, who has watched an Internet backlash against trailers for the June movie. "Two-thirds of the comments out there are negative: 'Why are you remaking this classic?' 'It was the movie of my childhood.' 'It was my inspirational movie.' 'Why are you remaking it? Just because Jaden is a little rich kid?’  I’m wondering if those people are going to go see it."

Kamen is best known these days as French writer-director-producer Luc Besson’s go-to collaborator on projects such as “Taken,” “The Transporter” films and “The Fifth Element,” but it's clear he has deep (and protective) affection for the 1980s coming-of-age film that starred Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita.

In that original (which spawned three sequels) Macchio plays Daniel, a high school student who moves from New Jersey to California, where he is bullied by the locals. Morita, a handyman, agrees to teach the East Coast outsider in the ways of martial arts but the lessons are about far more than fighting.

The new revival is set in China, where 11-year old Smith portrays Dre Parker, who is even more of an outsider. Jackie Chan steps in this time as the mentor. The film opens June 11.

Kamen wasn’t invited to be part of the new production, although, per Writers Guild rules, he was sent a copy of the script and received a story credit.

"The film is exactly the film I wrote," Kamen said. "They just changed a 17-year-old kid into an 11-year-old African American kid. They changed Reseda to Beijing. It’s exactly the same, scene for scene. I was surprised I didn’t get [screenwriter] credit.”

The structure may look familiar to Kamen, but not the tone.

“This version is much slicker." Kaman said. "This version has scope, and big scenes with kung fu and beautiful scenic shots of China."

One major thing missing is sexual frisson, Kamen points out. The first had Macchio longing for the young Elisabeth Shue. “The first one had a girl who had [breasts] and [a butt]. There was some sexual danger between these teenagers."

He added that the date-movie crowd might stay home. “I don’t know if they’re going to want to show up. It’s now a kids' movie.”

Kamen, with tongue in cheek, said he has scaled back his plan to see the new film with a celebrity date -- Macchio. “We were going to drive up to the Chinese theater in that big yellow convertible that Mr. Miyagi gives him in the movie. Now we’re just going to dinner and the movie."

-- Rachel Abramowitz

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Recent L.A. Times addition Steven Zeitchik has another casting scoop for Hero Complex:

Josh Brolin could be going from "W." to K.

With "No Country for Old Men," "Milk," "W.," and, of course, "The Goonies" on his resume, Brolin's filmography speaks for itself. Now he may be adding "Men in Black 3" to that estimable list.

The actor is being considered for a role that would have him donning the black suit and shades for the third installment of the sci-fi comedy franchise. His exact part is a matter of discussion, but in recent days there's been chatter in Hollywood development circles of a few possibilities: He could play a new single-monikered government agent, with Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K passing the baton to Brolin's character. Or he could play Agent K as a young man. Or something else entirely.

Whatever the part, Brolin could be playing against some star power: Will Smith is expected to return in the new "MIB" as Agent J.

It wouldn't mark the first time J ran missions with someone else. In the second film, his character briefly chased aliens and erased memories with other partners before Jones' Agent K came out of retirement. UPDATE: According to people familiar with the project, Brolin would play a young Agent K, with Smith's Agent J traveling back in time to meet him.

Sony is currently contemplating a production start for the picture in 2010 (though it has yet to be greenlit). The film, which is based on a script by "Tropic Thunder" writer Etan Cohen and which tentatively has Barry Sonnenfeld coming back to direct, could shoot at least partly in New York.

One issue that still needs to be worked out: scheduling. Brolin has lately given Nicolas Cage a run for his money as the hardest-working man in show business, starring in the comic-book western "Jonah Hex" and the sequel to Oliver Stone's "Wall Street." Both of those films have wrapped, but he's signed on for a few more meaty roles that could shoot in the first part of 2010, including the Coen brothers' remake of "True Grit" and the Mafia crime drama "Cartel."

-- Steven Zeitchik

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Credit: Photo of Josh Brolin by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times