Saudi Arabia’s MBC Group has partnered with City of Life director and writer Ali Mustafa to produce a mini-series to be screened online, the firm said on Monday.
Classified, a five part mini-series about four friends journeying across the region, will launch on September 28 via mbc.net, the network said.
“This was a challenging yet fulfilling project to deliver for the region. We were quite excited to see this story come to life on screen for an audience that would be more inclined to watch because of its presence online,” Mustafa said in a statement.
Click here to watch trailer of Classified
Mustafa wrote and directed Dubai’s first feature length film, City of Life, which became an instant hit when it was released in the UAE last April. The film grossed AED509,085 ($138,598) during its first four days of release and attracted some 15,807 UAE cinemagoers during its opening weekend, double the anticipated number of viewers.
The Gulf has launched a string of film festivals in recent years in a bid to boost the number of local films made in the region Dubai led the pack with the 2004 launch of the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), and both Abu Dhabi and Qatar now play host to annual film summits.
The festivals have been accompanied by a surge in funding. At the Abu Dhabi festival, ‘Black Pearl’ awards offer a total of $1m in funding to filmmakers. Last year, the event announced the launch of the ‘Sanad’ fund, which pays subsidies ranging from $20,000 to $60,0000 to local film talent.
In Qatar, media group Alnoor Holdings in 2009 launched a $200m fund to finance and produce feature films.
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