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How 2012 movie The Expendables 2 short-changed Chinese viewers and everyone else, too – but still made US$315 million
- Jet Li’s brief turn in The Expendables 2 about sums up the Chinese involvement in the film, despite it originally being envisioned a China-US co-production
- Losing Chinese co-production status occasioned hasty script changes, moved the action from China to Bulgaria and saw a plot point literally drop out of a plane
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The Expendables 2, the second outing for Sylvester Stallone’s steroidal mercenaries, was meant to be a Sino-US co-production co-starring Donnie Yen Ji-dan, and a significant portion of the 2012 film was to be shot in China.
Things didn’t quite work out that way.
Instead, Chinese studio Le Vision Pictures stumped up a more modest percentage of the budget, superstar martial arts actor Jet Li appears for all of 10 minutes, and it was Bulgaria – not China – that provided the locations.
For most of its runtime, the film either downplays its Chinese elements or deals with them very, very awkwardly.
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