Despite his sincere, how-bad-can-an-11-year-old-fuck-it-up endorsement of new Kid Jaden Smith last week at the Slamdance Film Festival, Macchio's boyish visage cracked, steamed and melted when contemplating Jackie Chan's inheritance of Mr. Miyagi. “I don’t know,” he told MTV News:

"The thing is whether Jackie Chan gives you Jackie Chan, or if Jackie Chan does a, you know, real stretch to the character.” he explained. [...] “I think Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith, with a good script, and all the moons in alignment? It could be another big fat hit.”

Poor Ralph. We'd presume that Sony is in fact counting on Chan's genre-slumming reliability to align these proverbial moons, but! Think of the moral leverage Macchio will have 25 years from now when Jaden Smith traverses his own Slamdance red carpet, second-guessing Mickey Rourke's next comeback as Knox Jolie-Pitt's sensei in another, wrestling-tinged franchise reboot.

• ‘Karate Kid’ Ralph Macchio Unsure About Jackie Chan as Mr. Miyagi [MTV]

Admittedly, it took a light scolding from a Slamdance rep, who told us, "I thought you guys were champions of the underdog. So how come you’re not showing Slamdance any love? By your lack of coverage, are you suggesting truly independent movies aren’t worthy? We have celebrities too, you know. The Karate Kid and Denise Richards were both in the building!"

Fair enough. And it's not like we hadn't taken notice of posters around town touting Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Undead—the most erudite and Stoppardesque of the handful of zombie movies to invade Park City every season. (At least that's how we picture it.) It stars none other than beloved Karate Kid and The Outsiders actor Ralph Macchio—who, as you can well see from this high-res photo, could quite possibly be devouring festivalgoer brains in order to retain his impossibly boyish good looks. (He's—wow!—47.)

As for his take on the Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan-starring Karate Kid remake, he "broke his silence" to MTV Movies Blog, telling them, "'Listen, here’s my take on it. I think Jaden - you know, Will Smith’s kid - the kid’s got chops. He’s young; he’s like eleven…That story will work forever.'"

Yeah—but how's he going to look at 47? Exactly.

• EXCLUSIVE: ‘Karate Kid’ Ralph Macchio Breaks Silence On Will Smith Remake [MTV Movies Blog]