Get the latest gossip
Inside Saudia Arabia’s Big Cinema Swing ‘Desert Warrior,’ The Delayed $150M Historical Epic Still Being Readied For Battle
'Desert Warrior' is Saudi Arabia's big cinema swing, but three years after the Anthony Mackie epic filmed, the movie is not finished. Here's why.
Desert Warrior was unveiled in 2021 as a rallying cry for Saudi Arabian filmmaking.Starring Captain America’s Anthony Mackie and Oscar-winner Sir Ben Kingsley, the $150M epic was set up by Riyadh media giant MBC to project a vision of ancient Arabia to the world, inspire a new generation of local storytellers, and entice other Hollywood blockbusters to run their hands through the Gulf’s golden sands. Road to Perdition writer David Self’s original script put Mackie’s Bandit at the center of the story, but later redrafts by Wyatt and Erica Beeney ( Captive State) shifted the focus to Hind, who they wanted to be an empowered female protagonist. Arriving more than a year after the shoot, the prominent Hollywood executive, who developed shows including Mad Men and Breaking Bad, also brought in Tár producer Alexandra Milchan to help shepherd Desert Warrior on a consultancy basis.
Or read this on Deadline