Fan’s tax scandal shuts ‘Air Strike’

The director of Air Strike, featuring Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, says the film’s release has been cancelled in the wake of her disappearance and conviction on tax evasion charges.

The Second World War thriller, also starring Bruce Willis and Adrien Brody, was to have been released on October 26.

However, director Xiao Feng posted on his Weibo miniblog Wednesday that it was “time to let go” after eight years of work on the film.

Chinese tax authorities this month ordered Fan and companies she represents to pay taxes and penalties totalling $130 million (Dh477.41 million), ending speculation over the fate of one of the country’s highestprofile entertainers three months after she disappeared from public view.