For moviegoers of a certain age, it looked like Harald Zwart was walking into a no-win situation when Sony and Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment offered him the director's chair on their remake of THE KARATE KID. Even if he made a good film, how could he ever top one of the most cherished movies of the 1980s - a movie that is so relentlessly referenced in popular culture that a throwaway line like "Get him a body bag, yeah!" qualifies as a memorable quote? Was aging the film down to suit Smith's son Jaden the answer? Wouldn't this turn it into a children's film? And why set it in China? It all just seemed a bit desperate. Turns out Zwart and company knew exactly what they were doing. After serving his time on studio product like AGENT CODY BANKS and THE PINK PANTHER 2, Zwart has stepped up his game and delivered a big, sweeping, heartfelt Hollywood movie that promises to leave audiences cheering just as loudly as John G. Avildsen's original did - and he's done it by taking his time with the narrative (the film clocks in at 140 minutes), and giving his actors room to develop their characters (as Mr. Han, Jackie Chan is more affecting than he's ever been in an English-language production). Also, the fighting, considering the age of the characters, is surprisingly brutal. Nothing Zwart's done before suggested he had a movie like this in him; once the weekend box office estimates are in, I expect that studios will be clamoring for him to deliver many more like it. I spoke with Zwart today, on the eve of THE KARATE KID's release, and was not surprised to find him in an upbeat mood. But while he has to know what's coming, he was too superstitious to disclose any significant ideas about how he'd handle a sequel or what he'd like to do with his currently-in-development adaptation of the video game ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON. He was just happy to discuss what works with the current movie, and how much he'd like to do it all over again.

Mr. Beaks: What was it that got you into filmmaking? What was the movie that really sparked your interest?

Harald Zwart: Well, I've always been interested in film. I made my first film when I was eight years old. It was [Super 8 mm] with my granddaddy's camera. I made animation... anything I could think of. I just kept making them. I did comic strips in the local newspaper. Anything to tap into the movie world. Then when I finally saw STAR WARS when I was twelve, I thought, "Okay, that's it. I have to make movies." (Laughs) But there was no movie industry, nothing, in my hometown in Norway, so I had the longest journey. I ended up getting into film school in Amsterdam, which was fantastic. And then my exam film was shown on all Scandinavian TV channels, so I got headhunted into commercials and never looked back. I haven't had an unemployed day since then.

Beaks: So it was always looking towards Hollywood? That was the goal?

Zwart: I never had any intentions of staying in the Netherlands or Norway. I was always on my way to L.A. And when I finally moved here, I was invited over to have lunch with Mr. Spielberg, so I said to my wife, "Okay, this is it. We're going to stay here." (Laughs) She was cool enough to say, "Okay, let's give it a shot." And now we have two children who were born and grew up here. Actually, they're growing up; they're five and seven.

Beaks: Lunching with Spielberg will do that.

Zwart: And he's the nicest guy in the world. I was so in awe, it was more my wife and him who had conversations. I was just sitting there. (Laughs)

Beaks: Understandable. You know, this film is so... I don't want to say "surprising", but I've seen your other movies and this one, visually, is much more lush and sweeping than anything you've done before. Did you feel like you were throwing off the shackles a little here?

Zwart: That's exactly right. This was finally the movie that gave me the ability to show what I am as a filmmaker. You know, you make choices in your career, and sometimes you make "career choices" so to speak. I'm very grateful for all the movies I've done, but this one is by far the one that shows me as the filmmaker I really I am. I love the artistic size of this movie, I love the emotional size of this movie, I love the chills you get, the choking up, and people standing up and cheering at the end. I love having Chopin and Lady Gaga in the same movie. (Laughs) I'm classically trained, and I think that's where I bring my European sensibility. Also the shadow theater, and when [Dre and Mr. Han] hit their deepest point, and they become resurrected together in the shadow theater on the wall. All of that stuff is really what I loved about this movie. And obviously working with Will Smith, Jackie Chan, Jaden, Jada and all those guys... there's nothing better.

Beaks: Those elements you're talking about, particularly the shadow theater, are a more visually elegant way of telling the story. But you have to take your time to make that work. And it's rare that you get that time in a studio movie. Generally, the inclination is to want to get on with the story and move it along at a faster clip. Was it always your intention to tell the story at this pace?

Zwart: My pitch to do the movie had all of that artistic stuff in it, so all credit to the producers: Ken Stovitz and Jada and Will Smith. Will really responded to it. I said, "I want to shoot this as if it was an independent movie." He really responded to that notion of really taking your time to establish the characters, and taking your time to set up the story. Clearly, the torture this character feels with "jacket on/jacket off" rubs off on the audience. We wanted that to go so long that the audience would go, "My god, how long is this going to go on?" Finally, when you release that tension, it's so much more gratifying. I really have to credit the producers. Obviously, Sony is a fantastic studio. They are so filmmaker friendly; they believe in the filmmakers. But thanks to Will Smith and the guys at Overbrook, we were able to make the movie we wanted to make.

Beaks: Was there a sense that you had to be careful to honor the original movie because it's a movie the parents of your target audience most likely loved when they were kids?

Zwart: Yeah. We were completely aware of that. We're all huge fans of the original movie, and in developing this one, we realized there was no way we could do it better. But we could do it different, and maybe better in other areas. We could make the fighting unbelievable, and we could make the emotional journey even deeper and more involving. But the core ideas, the idea that you think you're learning something but you're really learning something else, the "wax on/wax off" thing... all of those ideas are so brilliant that we knew we had to just keep those and make those different. We also pay homage to the original movie. That first time when Jackie is trying to catch the fly with his chopsticks, but then gets the fly with the flyswatter. I wanted to sign a contract with the audience as if to say, "I know you're waiting for these moments, and you're going to get them. But you're going to get them a little differently."

Beaks: You were talking about the look of the film. One thing I wanted to discuss was your work with the cinematographer Roger Pratt, who's shot a number of films I love - especially THE END OF THE AFFAIR. How did you guys approach shooting China?

Zwart: I've shot pretty much all over the world doing commercials. I shot in Cuba, I've shot in the north of Russia, I've shot in South Africa... I've become pretty thick-skinned when it comes to challenges on the spot. But I quickly realized that the smartest way to do this movie was to do it, like I said, as an independent movie. Because when you do a Hollywood production, you have an enormous amount of people with you. We were a 550-man crew. We had ninety drivers. And there was no way I could get the SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE shots I wanted with that kind of a massive crew. So one day we were shooting a simple close-up in the back of the car with Jaden, and we had forty trailers [on set]. I was like, "Who ordered all of these trailers? I don't need forty trailers." There was no correlation between the autopilot that these kinds of productions usually go on and what we were actually shooting. So I had a big meeting with everyone, and I said, "We have to become an independent crew on certain days." That's how I approached it. I didn't want more equipment than I could fit into one car. I knew what lenses I needed. And I told Will and Jackie, "We maybe need to disguise you guys." Because they got recognized all over the place. When Jackie walks around the streets in China, it's Beatlemania. And that's all credit to those guys. They're just really interested in the end result. This is how we got to shoot in the Forbidden City and shot in those neighborhoods. And the temples... we took these gondolas up to the temples, and you could only fit two people in them. I saw Will carrying sound equipment, and I saw Jackie helping out with wardrobe - and that's when I saw the spirit of the movie. That's how it got that flavor that it has, which is a great authenticity.

Beaks: This film is very much an international production, what with the China Film Group's involvement. To shoot in China, did you have to submit a screenplay to get approval?

Zwart: I'm far away from that process. The studio and the producers deal with that. We were a co-production, so naturally... they were producing it with us, but I never felt limited to "Do this" or "Don't do that". I never encountered anything like that.

Beaks: I just remember hearing athletes and journalists complain during the China Olympics that there were times they felt limited or censored.

Zwart: No, they were really helpful. I think they realized we just wanted to make a film that shows real China, and how fantastic it is over there. It was a love letter to China from our end, and they just trusted us on that. They made sure that we could shoot inside the Forbidden City and all these historic places where a film is normally impossible to shoot.

Beaks: I don't know how many films have been shot in the Forbidden City. There's THE LAST EMPEROR, and... what else?

Zwart: Those doors that we open in the movie? Those hadn't been opened since the real "Last Emperor" died. That was amazing.

Beaks: That's kind of incredible. You know, one of the interesting things about this movie is how it reflects where America is economically. Starting the film in Detroit, and having a family forced to leave an American city to find opportunity in another country... were you worried about portraying America as a place where opportunity has ceased to exist? How did you deal with that?

Zwart: That was an idea that was in the script all along. I think that grounds it in a little of the zeitgeist of our country right now, and makes it relatable. We didn't want to dwell too much on it because we don't want to say that there are no opportunities here anymore. But we certainly wanted to say that there are opportunities elsewhere, that people do have to move around to find jobs. We thought that was a real interesting dilemma for a mom, like when she says in the movie, "This is home. There's nothing left for us in Detroit." That feels kind of real. We liked that.

Beaks: I grew up an hour south of Detroit, and it's just amazing to see what's become of the city. It's something that I think people are sensitive to, and I wonder how it will be taken in Detroit.

Zwart: I don't know. We'll see. (Laughs)

Beaks: Watching the movie last night with a roomful of critics, and taking note of the applause, I can't help but think sequel. Knowing that this could be a franchise relaunch, are you game for coming back and doing a second film?

Zwart: Yeah! When I was on the set looking at Jaden and Jackie, and how the two of them turned into really good friends. Just to see Jackie skipping rocks in the lake with Jaden, and Jaden pulling a a practical joke on Jackie... they are such a good movie couple, the two of them. It's just a good buddy movie. I would love to go back and work with them - and Will and the other producers. I had such a good experience.

Beaks: Would you stay in China or go somewhere else?

Zwart: Oh, we have not even started... we just look at each other every now and then and go, "Let's hold off." We have to wait and see where this weekend takes us.

Beaks: You're also developing ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON. How's that coming along?

Zwart: We're just in the very early stages. I just love those two writers, Jay Scherick and [David Ronn]. We have such a good time talking about the project. That's something I'm really excited about. We'll get down and dirty on that as quickly as we can. I just finished the whole launch of this one, so I now I have to figure out what I'll do next. I'm out of a job, so to speak. (Laughs)

I don't expect that to last long. THE KARATE KID opens Friday, June 11th, in theaters everywhere. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks