Executives from Paramount Pictures are in Dubai to discuss filming part of Mission: Impossible IV in the emirate. Senior industry executives confirmed the visit of several Paramount employees, who came to Dubai to discuss potential locations for shooting the upcoming film, which stars Tom Cruise. A source said Paramount was considering filming parts of the movie in the UAE, adding that "all these franchise films are multi-country". Paramount Pictures declined to comment.
Only a handful of big-budget films have been made in the UAE, the most notable being the Hollywood movies Syriana and The Kingdom. Negotiations to shoot other films in the country, including Sex and the City 2, Body of Lies and The A-Team, have been unsuccessful due to financing or cultural sensitivity issues. Ziad Batal, the executive producer at All 4 Media, a film and TV production company based in the UAE, confirmed Paramount Pictures executives were in the UAE to discuss Mission: Impossible IV.
"I've heard they are in town and are scouting [for locations]. They are in serious discussions with [Dubai] Studio City," said Mr Batal. Jamal al Sharif, the executive director of Dubai Studio City, declined to give further details regarding Mission: Impossible IV. "I have heard some rumours. There's not much more I can say about it," Mr al Sharif said. Mr Batal said other reasons previous negotiations to film Hollywood features in the UAE had stumbled were due to the lack of government subsidies and incentives for movie producers, which are common in many other film production markets.
"We come from a culture of tax incentives and tax breaks," he said. "Unfortunately we don't have that here. That's the only way we can attract the big boys to come out here." Mr Batal cited the example of The A-Team movie. He claims discussions to film the movie in the UAE broke down because of the lack of incentives. "The bottom line was about incentives. The film was shot in Canada where they are famous for their incentives, where they practically took away half of Hollywood's business," he said.
The Mission: Impossible franchise has grossed more than US$1.4 billion (Dh5.14bn) globally, according to Paramount Pictures. The fourth instalment, which is set for release in the US in December next year, will be produced by Tom Cruise, the Mission: Impossible IV writer JJ Abrams and Bad Robot Productions. It will be directed by Brad Bird. Filming Mission: Impossible IV in Dubai would help the UAE's fledgling film industry, Mr Batal said.
"I hope it would be a boost for the local production industry, rather than just a Hollywood circus coming in and then leaving … leave something behind for these [local film] guys," he said. "We need more film productions. We don't have enough. There are thousands of films made every year but we can only brag about two majors in the last five years. More are made in Prague than here." bflanagan@thenational.ae
