In a move that has baffled many, Warner Bros seems to have pulled the scheduled release of the blockbuster Batman movie "The Dark Knight" in China, citing "cultural sensitivities" surrounding the film.

The studio, a unit of Time Warner Inc, did not specify what Chinese audiences or censors might find objectionable about the movie.

"Based on a number of pre-release conditions that are being attached to 'The Dark Knight,' as well as cultural sensitivities to some elements of the film, we have opted to forego a theatrical release of the film in China," Warner Bros said in a statement.

The film includes a sequence in which Batman, the movie's comic book superhero played by Christian Bale, penetrates a criminal mastermind's skyscraper redoubt in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong.

I'm sure that would seriously damage sino-hollywooden relations, as, of course, films about criminal underworld are hugely unpopular in China and Asia in general. Indeed the rows and rows of DVDs of action crime thrillers set in Hong Kong are just there as decorative background and nobody actually rents this stuff.

The alleged cultural sensitivity may have more to do with piracy, but surely banning the film's release is just going to flood China with DVD copies. Perhaps the country is already saturated with copies that nobody is going to pay to go and watch the same film in a theatre.

(news from Reuters)

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