Dubai's film industry may be in its infancy, but it is still attracting production firms from across the world and helping to attract money into the emirate, reports Sean O'Driscoll
At Jumeirah last night, producer Tim Smythe was preparing for day 34 of 'City of Life', an epic Hollywood/Arabic/Bollywood tale that its makers hope will be a major statement about Dubai's place in the global film world. The movie, which will wrap in two days, features US, Indian and Arabic actors in a tense tale of Dubai's class divisions. With a natural audience among three massive cinema markets, 'City of Life' promises to be the biggest success yet for Smythe, who worked on 'Syriana', partly filmed in Dubai, and 'The Kingdom', which was filmed in neighbouring Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile the recent release 'Duplicity', starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, also features a scene set in Dubai, although the stars themselves never visited the emirate. The scene, set on a hotel terrace, was shot in the US with a second crew in Dubai to take exterior shots. Smythe's company, called Filmworks, is also in serious negotiations for three major Hollywood productions.
Exact details have not been released, but one is a romantic film, one is an action film and the third is an action comedy. Two of the three are sequels to major Hollywood movies. Dubai Studio City also recently hosted director Rob Cohen, who was scouting locations for his latest movie and is almost certain to film in the city. He adds some heavyweight presence to Dubai's burgeoning film industry. As a producer, his successes include 'The Witches of Eastwick' and 'The Running Man'. As a director, Cohen's known for next year's 'The Mummy 4 - Rise of the Aztec' and the action film 'The Fast and the Furious'. The Dubai government is enthusiastic about his presence and showed off Studio City, which is two million square metres and has 14 sound studios. Studio City is expected to officially open at the end of the year, and is promising to help everything from scriptwriting right through to post-production. However, despite the glitzy buzz around Dubai and the Hollywood-heavy Atlantis launch, Smythe is very cautious about future of the city's film industry. He said: "There has been a number of major features that have been partially shot here in recent years, but that's not enough to sustain a full-time film industry."
If Dubai is to make the breakthrough to the big time, it must have both financial support for the local film industry as well as incentives to attract international feature films. "You absolutely must have both, its not going to work with just one," Smythe said. "There must be continuous work to keep the talent here. "It won't happen if there is just one film being made every two years." However, Dubai's TV work is proving to be a solid source of income through the global economic crisis. At the offices of AAA car service centre in Dubai, general manager Frank Murray is the king of the mobile camera. AAA has special equipment for high-tech film work, allowing a camera to be mounted on the back of a vehicle for a panning shot across a scene. "It's been a very good earner for us because nobody else has it. That's the thing with the film industry - you have to find your own little spot in it and right now, things are good," he says.
He recently helped filming for BBC's 'Doctor Who' and for 'City of Life'. And at La Femme beauty salon in Jumeirah, Elga Kassebaum (pictured left) is also doing well from the city's TV industry. Elga's beauty chain recently took on a contestant from the hugely popular German reality show, Job Test, while her dogs are appearing in a TV commercial for General Motors' Chevrolet Aveo cars. The General Motors ad campaign hired the dogs for a commercial filmed behind the Shangri-La Hotel, near the Sheikh Zayed Road. A trainer flew in from South Africa to train the dogs for three weeks and Elga earned a generous cheque for renting them out. "Ok, so we don't do the big Hollywood movies here yet but you can still get involved, you can still make some money," says Elga. "You just have to look out for opportunities. If you look around, you'll find things happening in Dubai."
© 7Days 2009
