Inside Olivewood, Jordan's new high-tech film studio complex that's challenging Hollywood

The National goes behind the scenes at the facility, which aims to be a one-stop destination for local and international productions

A sprawling production complex in Amman is introducing a new chapter in Jordan’s filmmaking industry – and it has the West's studios in its sights.

Olivewood Film Studios aims to be a one-stop destination for local and international projects to be made in the kingdom from start to finish. Its state-of-the-art facilities include soundstages, workshops and a vast outdoor space to build sets from scratch.

“The whole complex is 40,000 square metres,” Jumana Sharbin, general manager of Olivewood, tells The National. “We took into consideration global standards because we do want to compete with the big studios.”

The complex features two soundstages, each spanning 1,500 square metres. Its 700 square metre production offices, meanwhile, are equipped with green rooms, changing rooms, as well as spaces dedicated to hair and make-up. A space dubbed The Mill stretches for more than 1,000 square metres and features workshops for carpentry, blacksmithing, painting and costumes, as well as storage spaces.

The complex is also a 20-minute drive from a 6.8-hectare backlot, giving filmmakers a blank canvas to create any outdoor scenes. Sharbin adds that since the complex’s opening last September, it has already accommodated several local and regional works, including sitcoms and short films.

“We're now negotiating with the international productions,” Sharbin says. “We just started travelling to international film festivals to talk about Olivewood and I think the buzz is out there and we have a lot of inquiries coming.”

The complex aims to extend the kingdom's rich cinematic history. It has been a Hollywood favourite since David Lean captured the ochre vastness and dramatic sandstone heights of Wadi Rum in his 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia.

Despite the film’s narrative shortcomings, specifically where Arab representation is concerned, Lawrence of Arabia put Jordan on Hollywood’s radar, marking the country as a filmmaking destination ripe with potential. Since then, international filmmakers have flocked to Jordan, specifically for its otherworldly scenes.

The country’s dunes have been paramount in lending a mystical flair to films such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Aladdin (2019). The desert has doubled for Mars in several blockbusters, including Red Planet (2000) and The Martian (2015). It has also been the cinematic site for fictional desert planets in films from the Star Wars franchise and Dune (2021).

Yet while many international productions visited Jordan for its unique terrain, they often had to travel to Europe or the US to film scenes that required soundstages or soundproof structures with high ceilings used for production.

Studios bosses hope the expansive facilities will put an end to this.

While in the past, Jordan was one of the few countries in the region that could lure international productions this has changed in recent years. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are increasingly embracing the economic and creative advantages of the filmmaking sector, establishing their own studio complexes and rebate programmes.

However, Sharbin says Jordan still manages to stay distinct due to two main factors. “In the Middle East, our local crew and cast are well recognised for their skills,” she says of the first reason. “They've been trained by the West, working on international movies. They’ve learned so much along this 30-year journey. They are actually requested by Dubai. They're requested by Lebanon, by Saudi Arabia. So they are in high demand because they're so skilled.”

For the second, she credits the diversity of Jordan’s terrain. “The beauty of Jordan is that you have landscapes, you have the sea, you have the desert, you have Petra, so you can get a bit of everywhere in your production.”

That’s not to say that international projects have priority. Sharbin is keen to have critically acclaimed Jordanian films emerge from Olivewood, hopefully even following in the footsteps of the coming-of-age drama Theeb, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2016.

“Our objective is not only to cater to the international,” Sharbin says. “The region is important, and the local is certainly important. We would love to see more Jordanian films going to the Oscars. We’re hoping that Olivewood will be part of this.”