Spike Lee eyes Dubai for movie funding

Hollywood movie maker Spike Lee is looking towards Dubai and the Gulf region to possibly help fund future films.

The maverick producer-director says with the US suffering from the credit crunch, people are being forced to look elsewhere for funding and Dubai is one of the places he wants to target.

Lee, who has been twice nominated for an Oscar, is planning to make his first visit to the emirate in November after being invited to the The Atlantis Hotel on the Palm, reported Emirates Business on Friday.

He told the paper: "There is a tonne of money in Dubai, so I've gotta get on a plane; I gotta start making connections. I don't want to be in a position where if I want to do a film and the Hollywood studios don't want to make it, then it doesn't get made. I gotta know that no can't be a final no. I gotta go to other sources of finance."

More and more directors are looking outside of the US to secure the money necessary to make their films nowadays with three-time Oscar-winner Woody Allen's past four films being shot in Europe.

"Film-makers need to go anywhere they can to get money," Lee added.

He said his latest film, Miracle at St Anna, would not be premiering at Dubai Film Festival. The movie is an adaptation of James McBride's book of the same name and was shot on a budget of around $45 million.