Three years ago, with some fanfare, Saudi Arabia’s first tentpole movie was announced, an action epic titled “Desert Warrior” shot in a scenic area around the site of the futuristic city of NEOM with a hefty $150 million budget.
Helmed by British director director Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and featuring a top notch international cast led by “Captain America” star Anthony Mackie, Ben Kingsley, and Aiysha Hart (“Mogul Mowgli,” “Colette”), “Desert Warrior” – which is set in at a pre-Islamic 7th century Arabia when Saudi was made up of rival, feuding tribes forever at each other’s throats – has since been caught in a seemingly endless tempest of reshoots, recuts, and infighting.
But now “Desert Warrior,” which is produced by Saudi-owned powerhouse MBC Studios with U.S. producer Jeremy Bolt (“Resident Evil”) and Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios, seems to have finally found some peace. The symbolic epic touted as a testament to Saudi’s ambition to produce high-end content for global audiences is expected to surface next year, possibly on the festival circuit.
Wyatt who, amid the turbulence, had been taken off the project by MBC, is now back on “Desert Warrior,” which, according to Ford, is a good thing.
“Rupert re-boarded the film in the early fall, and it will be finished during the first quarter of next year,” said Ford speaking to Variety at the Marrakech Film Festival last week. I’d like to think I was instrumental in helping them get to that decision,” the L.A.-based producer added, because they were definitely at something of a crossroads six, seven months ago.”
“I am genuinely excited about seeing his [Wyatt’s] cut in two weeks in New York City, Ford went on. “I think giving him the opportunity to finish what he started was absolutely the right thing for MBC to do,” Ford noted.
“And, although it definitely went off on a tangent at one stage, no one should judge the film based on what happened there,” Ford went on to point out. “The film will be judged on what it is as a finished film, not on the post-production schedule.”
In “Desert Warrior” Kingsley plays Emperor Kisra who has a reputation for being utterly ruthless. So when the Arabian princess Hind (Hart) refuses to become Kisra’s concubine, the stage is set for an epic confrontation after she escapes into the desert and puts her trust in mysterious Bandit (Mackie) with whom she rallies the previously warring tribes to take on Kisra’s enormous army.
After production costs on “Desert Warrior” spiralled out of control, one thing is sure, the Saudi blockbuster’s climactic battle scene is bound to have many viewers lying in wait. It better be good.
