UAE filmaker appeals for funds to make 'Expats' the movie

FILM FUNDS: Dubai resident Craig Johnson is looking for funds to make his move 'Expats' in time for the Dubai International Film Festival in December. (Getty Images)

A filmmaker, whose planned movie charting the lives of expatriates in the UAE was scuppered after the financial crisis hit the country, is appealing for fresh funding to shoot the project.

Craig Johnson needs AED3m ($816,000) to make the feature film, entitled Expats, which will follow the fortunes of three different families who move to the UAE in search of what Johnson describes as the “Arabian dream.”

Last year the 36-year-old New Zealander was all set to begin shooting the screenplay he had written after investors came forward to fund the project.

However, it was while Johnson was waiting for approval for the film from the UAE National Media Council in Abu Dhabi at the end of 2008 when the first signs emerged that the Gulf state was feeling the strain of the global financial downturn.

Johnson, who owns a real estate company which has been hurt by the slowdown in the UAE property market, watched in frustration as investors withdrew their interest - and the project ran aground.

Now, after tweaking the script to reflect the unfolding economic turmoil that has shaken the UAE, the father-of-two is keen to launch the project anew.

“We have cast and crew ready but just need a bit more money,” said Johnson, who is aiming to have the film featured at the Dubai International Film Festival in December.

“We are stuck in a situation where we’re ready to go but are short of funds as some of the people that were willing to invest backed away as they’d been burnt in other areas.

“I saw a business opportunity as well as a personal interest in doing a screenplay about expatriates as nobody had really tackled the subject before and it’s fairly topical as a lot of people around the world were talking about Dubai,” he said.

Johnson, who has lived in Dubai for five years, hopes to attract the AED3m he needs to make the film by inviting investors to buy into a block of 10 shares valued at AED300,000 each.

He is also looking for investors who may would be willing to help fund further films to be made by McMahon Johnson, a production company he is setting up in Dubai with his wife Laura.

He’s already completed a script for a comedy which he’s hoping to sell to a studio and has another screenplay he’s working on. 

He has previously sold a screenplay to a company called Supreme Media Group in Hollywood.

“This is a business for me and I want to attract investors who I can show profit to and can participate in one or more of the films we are doing,” he said.

“All the money that we are putting into it is going into an escrow account and investors are covered legally.”

The cast includes seasoned professional actors from the UK, as well as expatriate and Emirati actors.

“The film is about expatriates chasing the Arabian dream and making a new life for themselves where it’s all happening,” said Johnson.

“Even though we’ve gone through what we’ve gone through in Dubai in the last year, it’s all still relevant.  Even with the turmoil we’re facing, people are still coming here to make a new life – some of them succeed and some of them fail.”

For investment queries, please contact Craig Johnson directly at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it

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READERS' COMMENTS

Dream a dream? trick or treat? who cares?
Posted by Juan Alejandro, Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday 20 May 2009 at 17:09 UAE time


The idea sounds good more for a documentory, we all know what it is for expats acomplish a dream in foreign lands, I think that this director wants to show that just like the american dream is just a dream or concious trick to treat the mind, its now happening in UAE, the UAE does not have a pocket change of 830,000, thats enough to let us all know what the movie will be about, "how poor people suck up to rich people in another land where these riches show how rich, smart and powerful I am, but now when we dont have money we need to slave some workers to do it for us" this movie will show how bad and worst it is to follow the ARABIAN dream compared to the AMERICAN dream, I would prefer the American dream in a free land full of American idiots.... this movie will show shame to ARABIA, I would fund the movie, have the director contact me.

Thank You!

The expats' pipedream
Posted by Cholo Jopson, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 20 May 2009 at 09:46 UAE time


Small dreams that flopped. Hopes still fleeting. Like the 'apple cities' in the Middle East, Dubai can not hold on to its promise to be an expatriate's pipe dream. These cities offer a rewarding pay scale for the select, but not the best living that life could offer. Still, the expatriate will leave, and finally bid adieu to his adopted haven, he once called Dubai.

I keep my fingers crossed that the film makers of Expat, would portray the lives and times of the expatriates in Dubai - Asians, Caucasians, black or white with the similar sensibility. Show how tough it is to live and work away from home, as the skyscrapers and other symbols of affluence lurk down on them.

Hope to see the movie soon...

Very interesting
Posted by Tareq on Wednesday 20 May 2009 at 08:46 UAE time


Good luck Craig, I'll be one of the first to lineup to see this movie. You seem like you know what you're doing so I hope it's gonna be as good as it sounds.

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