CHINA YANKS NICOLAS CAGE FILM AT LAST MINUTE

Outcast may be a co-production with a Chinese film company, Yunnan Film Group. Yunnan may also have been the principal investor in the film and its distributor. The film may have been shot in China with a largely Chinese cast and it may be about two crusaders, portrayed by Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen, who came to China in the 12th century. But at the last moment — less than one day before it was to be released, Chinese authorities yanked it from theaters. "I’m confounded," Jeremy Bolt, one of the film’s producers, told the Los Angeles Times. "A delay within 24 hours of the release is extremely unusual. We went through all the proper approvals. I just don’t know what to say." No official reason for the Chinese action was offered, and the Times itself commented that the government action in yanking the film from more than 5,000 theaters demonstrates "how unpredictable the country can be for filmmakers eager to exploit the world’s second largest film market."