Shows With Arab, Muslim Characters Go Global: ‘This Is a Culture That Loves Telling Stories’

Peter Caranicas Deputy Editor Global law firm Greenberg Traurig now boasts the largest sports, media and entertainment team in the Middle East with the addition of two new attorneys: shareholder David Bintliff and senior associate Lewis Calder, who will be based in the United Arab Emirates office. Both were previously with Bird & Bird.

Manchester City are in the Middle East this week as they bid to create history in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Saudi director Ali Kalthami’s thriller Night Courier (Mandoob) has posted a record-breaking opening at home, generating 114,000 admissions for a $1.58 million gross to beat Warner Bros. blockbuster Wonka.

Tyson Fury has given fans a sneak peek inside his fancy private jet as he flew to Saudi Arabia for a family holiday.The Gypsy King took a little break with his family before his big fight with Oleksandr Usyk on February 17, after beating UFC star Francis Ngannou. Giving a glimpse inside their lavish lifestyle, his wife Paris Fury showed off their swanky plane ride on Instagram. Seemingly shot by Tyson, Paris added the caption: "Just took a little trip...

Metallica played their first ever show in Saudi Arabia this week – check out fan-filmed footage below.The metal icons performed at the Soundstorm festival in Riyadh on Thursday (December 14) in their final show of 2023, running through a 16-song setlist including hits such as ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’, ‘Master Of Puppets’ and ‘Enter Sandman’.When it was announced on November 27, Metallica’s performance was billed as the first ever show from a major international heavy metal act in the country, but technical death metal band Cryptopsy got there first when they played in Riyadh on December 1.Check out fan-filmed footage and view the setlist below:METALLICA LIVE AT RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIAA dream came true

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor “The Pianist” and “King Kong” star Adrien Brody spoke at the Red Sea Film Festival Friday about a wide variety of creative pursuits, including making music from popcorn in the 1990s. “I liked the sound of the kernels of popcorn hitting the aluminium lid of the pan and so I set my microphone up and recorded it and then I sampled it and put on some reverb,” he told the audience in Saudi Arabia. “It went pok-a-pok-a-pok.” Something of a prodigy, he was cast as a lead in a TV movie “Home at Last” when he was only 15 and later became the youngest actor to win the best male lead Oscar.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Andrew Garfield spoke to an audience rich in Spider-Man fans about his career at the Red Sea Film Festival Thursday, sitting alongside Saudi producer and Red Sea Film Foundation CEO Mohammed Al Turki. The two have known each other since Garfield starred in Ramin Bahrani’s 2014 drama “99 Homes,” which Al Turki produced. “I’m currently out of work,” Garfield quipped.

Nicolas Cage doesn’t really care if you know he’s related to Francis Ford Coppola. 

“Entrepreneurship and acting are very similar. Both require the same kind of energy,” Goop CEO and Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow told a crowd during a career retrospective this evening at the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia. 

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Oscar-winning actor Halle Berry had a strike of inspiration on the flight to Saudi Arabia, where she gave a career-spanning conversation at the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival. The flight, she said, led her to figure out what she wants to direct next: “It’s a love story at its core but it deals with the supernatural, time travel and the future.” This will mark Berry’s sophomore feature after 2020’s MMA drama “Bruised.” When asked about her first directing experience, the actor was frank, labelling the entire process “hell.” “Because I was a woman, and a Black woman, the treatment I received and the things I had to put up with were unconscionable,” she said.

Former Universal Pictures executive Paul Chesney has been out and about this past week at the third edition of Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, running November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah.

William Earl This awards season’s premier contending filmmakers, talent and artisans will gather for exclusive panels at Variety FYC Fest on Dec. 6 in Los Angeles from 9 a.m.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Some of the most powerful figures in Saudi film gathered at the Ritz Carlton in Jeddah for a cocktail party hosted by Film AlUla and Stampede Ventures in partnership with Variety last night. Figures such as Saudi producer and film industry pioneer Faisal Baltyuor and Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy were spotted along with Zeinab Abu Alsamh, general manager of MBC Studios Saudi Arabia. Stampede Ventures head Greg Silverman was celebrating the $350 million three-year deal just signed with Film AlUla, which will bring 10 projects to the region.

Will Smith has shared an updated on his highly anticipated I Am Legend sequel – see what he had to say below.Speaking at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia this past weekend (December 2), Smith spoke briefly about the upcoming zombie film’s sequel, which will also star Creed‘s Michael B. Jordan.For the film, Smith will be reprising his role as Robert Neville. Smith confirmed at the film festival that I Am Legend 2 will retcon the original film’s ending, and will instead follow the alternate ending in the film’s DVD version.“I have a call with Michael B.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor Freida Pinto took a break from her jury duties at the Red Sea Film Festival to talk to Variety about her career and her hopes for the future. The Indian actor shot to world fame for her starring role in Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) and remains committed to the breadth of cinema. “I’ve always looked at cinema globally,” she tells Variety.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor It’s a busy year for the Red Sea Souk, the market arm of the Red Sea Film Festival dedicated to discovering new Arab and African talent. The same could have been said of every year of the market’s three-year history, however, with Saudi Arabia’s lightning-fast film industry solidifying the Souk as the principal film market for the Middle East and North Africa. The third edition of the Souk, taking place between Dec.

Stampede Ventures’ adaptation of Isabell Ronin’s YA romance webnovel Chasing Red will shoot in Saudi Arabia, it was announced at the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah on Saturday.

French director Maïwenn and Johnny Depp hit Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival on Friday for a special screening of period romance Jeanne du Barry followed by a Q&A.

Five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams joined us at our Deadline Red Sea Film Festival studio this week to discuss regional change, the role cinema played in her education as an actress and her next project: FX limited series Dying For Sex, which we detailed yesterday.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Untamed Talent, a management and production company led by former Mister Smith Entertainment executive Antone Saliba, is launching with the backing of Dubai-based Front Row Productions, a joint venture of leading Middle East distribution companies Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Empire Entertainment. Front Row Productions will provide capital and strategic value to support Untamed Talent’s goals to innovate new business models covering the South West Asia and North Africa region, the fastest-growing entertainment market in the world.