Dubai hotel gets big-screen break in Mission Impossible

Dubai’s Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, the hotel chain’s latest property on Palm Jumeirah, makes its big-screen debut this week as the backdrop for scenes in the movie Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

The latest installment of the billion-dollar movie franchise will make its world premiere at the Dubai Film Festival this Wednesday, featuring shots from a three-day filming stint at the luxury hotel.

“Being linked to one of the biggest films of the year being shot in the UAE is already a great bragging right for Jumeirah and the hotel’s owners,” Stephan Schupbach, the general manager of Jumeirah Zabeel Saray told Arabian Business on Monday. “I also look at this more from a “big picture” perspective and believe that Dubai as a destination will benefit from the current and future coverage.”

Along with filming stunts atop Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, movie star Tom Cruise and his 450-strong crew shot key scenes using Jumeirah Zabeel Saray as the backdrop. Some 250 extras were involved in the shots.

“We felt very lucky because we were able to not only shoot Burj Khalifa, but also Jumeirah Zabeel Saray. When people see it, and they have when we screen it for an audience, they feel as though they are in India. It has a real elegance and beauty on camera,” Cruise was quoted as saying in Jumeirah’s official magazine.

“I’ve always wanted to shoot Dubai and when it came up it was such a cinematic city.”

The film will also feature dramatic scenes featuring the Dubai International Financial Centre, a location that won praise from the film’s executive producer, Jeffrey Chernov.

 “We got the chance to shoot at the Financial District, which was phenomenal. It is very cinematic. We really went for the most cinematic parts of the city,” he told the magazine.

As a token of their appreciation, the cast and crew presented Dubai’s ruler, HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with gifts from the set; a ‘clapper board’ carrying signatures of the stars and makers of the film and a director’s chair featuring his name.

As the backdrop for the fourth film in the $1.4bn action franchise, Dubai has the opportunity to reap the benefits of its visibility. Previous film locations, such as the site for the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand, have allowed cities to cash in on the film’s popularity.

The country offers tourist trips around some of the film’s 100 locations, and the movie’s popularity helped entice other lucrative film projects to the region.