Local films to hit the big screen

Imagenation Abu Dhabi, the billion-dollar film fund, has created a department for producing feature films and digital content that tells stories form the Middle East. The department aims to set up an initial development slate of between five and seven projects this year, with an eye toward projects that can do well in the international market, according to company officials. Imagenation is a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Media Company, which owns The National.

"The idea is to identify stories from this part of the world, this culture, this mythology, as well as heroes from this part of the world, and make movies," said Edward Borgerding, the chief executive of Imagenation. "As far as whether we'll make them in English or in Arabic, obviously we'd rather make them in English, because we can make more money, which also means we can spend more money making the movie."

He added that some films with regional potential - as films made in Arabic are generally regarded - may also be considered. The division plans to hire an Arab executive and a staff of about five to start out. "The idea is that we will build a team here, and then basically identify the projects that we want to be involved in," said Stefan Brunner, the chief financial officer of Imagenation. Officials did not disclose the department's budget, but said the division of the fund included an equity stake comparable with the ones behind its previous ventures. These ventures include a US$250 million (Dh918.2m) leveraged deal with Participant Media, a $100m leveraged deal with National Geographic Films and a $250m leveraged deal with Hyde Park Entertainment. The partners' equity stakes in each of these deals are a fraction of the total, which is made up mostly of bank and other financing.

"We are very proud to be able to reinforce Abu Dhabi's position as an emerging media hub in the Middle East and to underscore our strong commitment to the film industry in the region," said Mohammed Khalaf al Mazrouei, the chairman of Imagenation. "Through this initiative, we are looking to tap into the vast pool of creative talent in the region and creating content that will be both meaningful and entertainment to audiences in the Arab world and beyond."

Some of that talent has already submitted scripts to Imagenation. "It took two hours after we announced the formation of the company for us to receive scripts," Mr Brunner said. "There are quite a number of projects, and some of them are really nice." [e-mail]