There are just two weeks until audiences in the UAE will be taken on a magic carpet ride, but some cinemagoers in France had a sneak preview of <em>Aladdin </em>this week. A screening of the Disney classic, given a live-action reboot by British director Guy Ritchie, was held at Paris's Cinema Le Grand Rex on Wednesday evening. Several of the action-adventure film's stars jetted into the French capital for the occasion, including Egyptian-born actor Mena Massoud, who takes on the titular role in the musical. <strong>Scroll through the gallery above to see more pictures from the <em>Aladdin</em> screening's red carpet.</strong> The 27-year-old was joined at the event by American star Will Smith, who plays the Genie that grants Aladdin three wishes when he's released from a magical lamp. British actress Naomi Scott, who plays Princess Jasmine, was also in attendance, wearing a sports-inspired white two-piece by Off-White. The trio will help bring the fictional city of Agrabah to life in <em>Aladdin</em>, which hits screens in the UAE on May 23, along with cast members such as Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Nasim Pedrad and Billy Magnussen. Massoud, who was born in Cairo and raised in Canada, this week opened up about the importance of actors from the region being represented in film. "I don't feel a lot of pressure but a lot of responsibility. I think things are changing with Rami Malek winning an Oscar for doing an incredible job as Freddie Mercury. There are a lot of Middle Eastern actors coming up," he told <em>People </em>magazine. "I think this film is important for representation. Hopefully, if it does well in cinema, Hollywood can have confidence in the fact that you can put a Middle Eastern in a lead role or in iconic role and it will still do well."