Scandalplagued Bruce Willis film to open in U.S.

Bruce Willis knew he wasn’t in Hollywood anymore. When his private jet landed in China three years ago for the shooting of “Air Strike,” the film crew didn’t have the money to pay the deposit for his hotel room.

The plot — behind the film, that is — only thickened. The original producer fled the country after his business got caught up in a peertopeer lending scandal, leaving director Xiao Feng, who retold the story of Willis’ hotel deposit on his blog, to tap his own savings to finish the film. Then Fan Bingbing, one of the top Chinese stars in the movie, went missing after becoming embroiled in a taxevasion scandal that shook the industry.

Despite all that drama, the movie opened Oct. 26 in select U.S. theaters (none are in the Denver area) through a partner of distributor Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. In China, it’s unclear whether the most scandalplagued film in recent memory will be able to capitalize on the publicity — negative as it was — because its debut has been pushed back indefinitely. Lions Gate declined to comment on the scandals around the film.

More broadly, the back story of the movie, which tells the tale of how residents of Chongqing rallied against Japanese air raids during World War II, shows some of the growing pains of a burgeoning industry in China, where boxoffice sales are on track to overtake those of the U.S. in coming years.

“Air Strike’s problems highlight the lack of pro fessional management and risk prevention awareness among China’s filmmakers,” said April Ye, China chief executive officer of Film Finances Inc., which helps movie makers finish films on time and budget. “It’s a necessary pain that the industry has to go through before it gets better and more transparent.”

The movie’s initial producer, Shi Jianxiang had other problems as well. In 2016, he seemed to hit pay dirt when “Ip Man 3,” a kungfu drama he backed starring Mike Tyson and Donnie Yen, had some success in theaters. Problem was, the movie’s boxoffice figures were found to have been inflated, which led shares in companies affiliated with Shi to crater.

Shi also ran peertopeer lending operations under his Shanghai Kuailu In vestment Group, which failed to pay investors. As scrutiny over that business intensified, he fled the country with “Air Strike” still in production. Last month, prosecutors told a Shanghai court that Shi’s companies illegally raised more than $5.8 billion (40 billion yuan), according to the Shanghai governmentrun Xinmin Evening News.

Shi couldn’t be reached for comment.

Then there’s the tax scandal surrounding Fan, one of the China’s highestpaid actresses. Her woes began when a former talkshow host posted contracts on his social media feed that allegedly showed the actress had concealed some of her income.

Fan then disappeared from public view. After months of speculation in China, she reappeared only after the government said she had been found guilty of underreporting income — including from “Air Strike.” Tax authorities imposed one of the biggest fines ever in China’s entertainment industry. Fan apologized publicly and agreed to cover her fines and back taxes.

Meanwhile, the government’s tax evasion probe isn’t done yet. Tax authorities have asked celebrities and studios to confirm their full compliance with tax laws and to immediately pay any arrears, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.