James Bond legend Sir Roger Moore and Hollywood wild Robert Downey Jr will co- star in a $50 million movie for Nickelson Entertainment Group (NEG), which will be filmed in Abu Dhabi, according to an official statement released by the company.
The cast of the movie, which is due for release in summer 2006, includes John Rhys Davis, who played Gimli in Lord of the Rings, and Joachim de Almeida, well known from the television series 24.
The archaeological thriller THE SANGRAAL, is the first film from Nickelson Entertainment Group (NEG), which has plans to create a film studio in the UAE.
Filming is likely to start in December or January and last for six weeks; the team may shoot the rest of the movie in Budapest, according to Michelle Nickelson, chief executive of NEG, quoted by Gulf News.
"My partner on the film, Bill Macdonald, is a pretty well-known producer in Hollywood. If you're in the business at that level, it's not difficult at all to get people like this.
"It's very exciting because it's something we've been waiting to do for a long time," Nickelson said.
Mrs. Nickelson stated that if there were no sequels to The Sangraal, the film's characters would become a television series called The Seventh Protocol.
Sir Riger Moore will portray Murdoch Macarthur, the head of an ancient organisation, while Downey Jr plays the film's lead character Stone, an Abu Dhabi-based archaeologist who "unwittingly ends up solving one of the world's greatest mysteries", and Rhys Davis is a senior churchman who uses de Almeida as "the instrument of his evil wrath".
The NEG, which was createad last year with the aim of making feature films and television series in the UAE as well as developing a local film studio, intends to show the opportunities of filming with lower costs in the Gulf region.
"The rest of the world has long overlooked the potential of the Arab world. George Clooney was in Dubai last year and people are starting to look into this region. Making this film here is a very good statement for this area," said William Baker III, a consultant with NEG.
Meanwhile, Robert Downey Jr., 40, can be seen in the upcoming "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", due for release on September 16. the movie is directed by Shane Black for Warner Bros. Pictures.
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