Dubai: Dubai has been featured in many Hollywood movies. Now a new Hollywood movie will celebrate the humanitarian achievements of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
The $150-million project is the brainchild of Masaud Khan, a former Pakistani expat currently running a film production company in Warsaw, Poland.
At a press conference held in Dubai on Sunday, Khan and his team members announced that the movie is their way of saluting the wisdom and vision of Shaikh Mohammad that has transformed Dubai and supported millions through various humanitarian initiatives launched by him.
“The objective of the salute is to learn more from his wisdom and make this world a better place to live,” Khan said.
Several initiatives to celebrate Shaikh Mohammad’s humanitarian projects are in the pipeline.
The 90-minute Hollywood feature film will be one of them.
The film to be titled The Wisdom is a story of a young blind girl, who, with the help of a humanitarian agency in Dubai, gets her eyesight back to see the beauty of the world and with her new sight attains the wisdom that shapes the destiny of her people.
Callisto Films, Khan’s firm based in Warsaw, Ministry of Events and Dream Advertising, two companies based in Dubai, are collaborating to make the film.
Khan, his partner Phillip Mibenge, Shujah Syed and Imad Syed are the executive producers of the film.
According to them, one of the three directors among Tom Hooper of King's Speech, Baz Luhrmann of The Great Gatsby or Wolfgang Petersen of Troy will be finalised to direct the film.
For the ensemble cast, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Gere, Emma Watson and Nicole Kidman will be approached.
The music of the film is acquired by the never released "lost tapes" of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in collaboration with Mahmood Khan, they stated.
Khan said it took two years to develop the 100-page script of the film, which, he said, will be as iconic as Lawrence of Arabia with one of the biggest ensemble casts to ever grace the silver screen.
The shoot of the movie is expected to begin in a remote village bordering Italy and Switzerland by the end of this year. The production will take three to four months and the movie will be dubbed in Arabic, Hindi, Polish and other languages as well.
“We want the whole world to watch this movie and be more aware of Dubai and His Highness.”
Mega event and museum
The same team will also host a mega event, A Salute to the Wisdom of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad, in Dubai on March 7.
The heads of all the humanitarian projects launched by Shaikh Mohammad will be invited to present their missions and achievements.
Another project will be a “wisdom museum” In Dubai. It will showcase the non-goverment organisations and the visionaries of Dubai.
A film festival on the theme of wisdom movies in Europe has also been planned. Khan said the team has been in touch with the protocol office of Shaikh Mohammad for all the projects.
