Chinese regulators aren’t happy with Quentin Tarantino’s latest film and have pulled it from the release schedule. The country’s regulators have remained hum on how “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” offended them, but sources with The Hollywood Reporter claim it involves Bruce Lee’s “controversial” portrayal (he acts smug in the film but gets beat up by Brad Pitt’s stuntman character, both of which would never happen in real life, according to family and friends).
Tarantino (who hates “any kind of tinkering with his films and has final-cut rights included in his contract”) has refused to recut the film, to the dismay of Beijing-based investors Bona Film Group. This would have marked the director’s first movie release in China, the box office of which would have brought it past $400 million.
As THR previously reported, sources close to Beijing-based Bona Film Group, which is one of the investors in the film, and China’s Film Bureau, say Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, made a direct appeal to China’s National Film Administration, asking that it demand changes to her father’s portrayal. Friends and family of the Hollywood action star have criticized Tarantino for his portrayal of Lee, saying it doesn’t resemble the real-life man and is instead a caricature.