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Still in Development: A Film Culture in Dubai |
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08.31.2009 |
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — When the heiress Paris Hilton traveled here in June and July to audition female friends for her show “My New BFF,” her producers had access to state-of-the-art studios and a government eager to import a touch of Hollywood glamour to the Middle East.
But to adhere to the region’s Islamic norms, many of the ingredients in reality TV were taboo: there would be no drinking, no cursing, no dramatic displays of affection. The producers thought about filming a scene at a water park, but passed on the option of dressing the contestants in religiously appropriate swimwear.
Dubai, its rival Abu Dhabi and other Persian Gulf cities face enormous hurdles as they try to diversify their economies by fostering creativity and becoming entertainment capitals. Chief among those hurdles: they operate under Islamic law. Hollywood does not. So far, the oil-rich countries have proved more able to pay for fancy media productions and to build expensive film facilities than to actually lure production to the Middle East, as economic efforts run up against their traditional values and censorship.
This month Dubai rejected the producers of the “Sex and the City” sequel, who wanted to set part of the film there. The government cited moral reasons for the decision. “Body of Lies,” a thriller about fighting terrorists, was turned down in 2007. For now, some of the region’s specially constructed studio lots lie mostly vacant, visitors say.
Michael Hirschorn, an executive producer of the Hilton series, left Dubai impressed by what he called a “media community truly eager to embrace the international marketplace.” But that community, he said, has been hampered “by cultural norms and standards that make a lot of international production difficult to impossible to pull off.”
Some of the other hurdles are logistical. For instance, local requirements for full-time work visas mean that the country lacks a robust freelance market to support productions. Jamal al-Sharif, the executive director of Dubai Studio City, which was founded in 2005 to stimulate the regional film industry, acknowledged that “a vital ingredient for building the film industry is access to talent.”
Despite the drawbacks, the region’s ambitions to house world-class centers for creation and production cannot be written off, partly because of the sheer sums proponents are willing to spend. Last fall, Imagenation, a subsidiary of the government-run Abu Dhabi Media Company, invested $250 million each with Participant Media and Hyde Park Entertainment and $100 million with National Geographic Entertainment to finance feature films. Work on the first phase of Abu Dhabi’s own media production zone, one geared toward television, is under way.
Abu Dhabi’s most expensive joint venture to date is a two-year-old one with Warner Brothers that was said to be worth $1 billion. This month, “Shorts,” the first Warner Brothers film financed partly by Abu Dhabi’s feature film arm, opened in theaters in the United States. It earned a disappointing $6.6 million in its opening weekend.
So far, “Shorts” is the only film to come from the joint venture: the partners have not announced any more films, feeding speculation that the authorities in Abu Dhabi are rethinking their Hollywood ambitions. But Edward Borgerding, the chief executive of Imagenation, said in an interview that he was sure “we’ll make another movie with Warner Brothers next year, and the year after that.”
In a statement that cited the “world economic climate,” Warner Brothers was more circumspect. It said it was working with Imagenation to ensure that the companies’ business objectives were mutually aligned.
National Geographic is making more progress with Abu Dhabi. Adam Leipzig, the president of its entertainment division, said the partners plan to make two or three films a year for the next five years. Their first acquisition, “Amreeka,” is scheduled for release in New York and Los Angeles on Sept. 4, and their first co-production, “The Way Back,” finished filming two months ago. The partnership expects to make more acquisitions at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The investments by Abu Dhabi are part of a wider push to establish the emirate as a cultural center. Like other Middle Eastern cities, the emirate has invested money and personnel in creating the infrastructure for media production. One year ago it announced a content creation center, which it dubbed Twofour54, and in September its first editing centers and studios will open on the outskirts of the city, said Christopher O’Hearn, the general manager of DMA Media, a consultancy that helped create the hub.
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Source:www.nytimes.com |
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