*Will Smith is still waiting for his new film "I Am Legend" to be cleared for takeoff in China, the lone Asian country that will not screen the movie when it opens across the region later this month.

The delay in the film's approval comes amidst China's announced temporary ban on American movies to help increase the country's domestic film industry - a move the country's regulator has denied.

"We struggled very, very hard to try to get it to work out, but there are only a certain amount of foreign films that are allowed in," Smith told reporters in Hong Kong on Friday.

Smith said he met with China Film Group's chairman, Han Sanping, to discuss a possible release date for "I Am Legend," as well as the production of other film projects in the country - including his long-rumored remake of "The Karate Kid," possibly set in Hong Kong or Beijing, reports the Associated Press.

"I Am Legend," which opes this Friday, Dec. 14 in theaters in North America, has already been given the green light in Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.