GONG LI - CHINA BARS FILMING OF WEINSTEIN CO. FILM

China's Film Bureau has informed the Weinstein Co. that it will not issue permits for the studio to film Shanghai, starring Gong Li and John Cusack, in Shanghai. Word of the refusal apparently caught director Mikael Hafstrom by surprise. According to Daily Variety, Hafstrom had spent the last six months in Shanghai preparing to shoot the film. "This obviously comes as a shock to all of us," Hafstrom told the trade publication. "We don't know exactly why we have been turned down." Variety speculated that the Chinese may have been concerned about the plot line, which includes drugs, sex, and war with the Japanese. (The movie is set in 1941.) Hafstrom indicated that the film is now likely to be shot in Hong Kong, which, although now officially part of China, is granted a considerable degree of self rule.

11/02/2008