Wednesday, September 03, 2008

If You Thought Hollywood Sucked Before ...

... it's gonna suck even more now:


Fresh from buying into English Premier League football, Abu Dhabi has its eye on another trophy.

The emirate on Wednesday set out plans to become one of the world’s largest film producers, with $1bn to invest in productions to be made in Hollywood
, Bollywood and beyond.

The funding, provided by Abu Dhabi’s government, will allow the Gulf state to back up to eight films a year over the next five years, Edward Borgerding, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi Media Company told the Financial Times.

ADMC has set up a company, called imagenation abu dhabi, to manage its film investments.

Confirming a report in the Financial Times, the new company on Wednesday said in a statement: “Our target output of eight films every year will make imagenation abu dhabi one of the world’s top producers of feature films and establish Abu Dhabi as a leading centre for content creation.”

Some Hollywood studios are struggling to replace the funds that rushed in from private equity and hedge funds in recent years. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer last month hired Goldman Sachs to “explore enhancements” to its long-term capital structure, amid reports Merrill Lynch was wavering in its commitment to finance MGM’s United Artists studio.

Abu Dhabi is seeking to usurp Dubai as the region’s leading media hub. The Islamic state remains wary of some western content, however, only agreeing to show edited versions of Syriana, the George Clooney film, because it feared that it would show the Gulf in a negative light.

8 comments:

Citizen Warrior said...

That seriously creeps me out. They're going to back Michael Moore to the hilt.

Citizen Warrior said...

By the way, I just watched a documentary last night called Patriot Act that was really good. Six U.S. comedians went to Iraq right after its liberation and did a tour, putting on several shows for U.S. soldiers all over Iraq. One of the comedians videotaped it and put together a movie out of his film.

Damien said...

Pastorius,

We can always hope Abu Dhabi's venture fails, that every film he makes doesn't make a profit. This is capitalism after all. Lets make a list and boycott every film his company makes.

Epaminondas said...

Impossible, the juze control hollywood, the banks and ZOG

I know this because every morning I get my update on the JUFONE.

Seriously, if they have HALF A BRAIN, somewhere in Israel they are getting ready to make a bid to Sony or someone, because if a big studio goes to one these other guys, all history is going to look like an Al Jazeera rewrite, and those guys will think they are just following god's instructions...

Pastorius said...

Epa,
Yep, that's right. You summed it up perfectly.

Pastorius said...

Damien,
I would imagine their movies would fail, because what the hell kind of crap would they back?

The American has already proved it hates anti-American movies.

Really, if Abu Dhabi wants to make money they should make French films.

Pastorius said...

C-Dub,
That sounds cool. I'll have to rent that DVD.

Damien said...

Pastorius,

Truth be told, even if it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with spreading the Islam-o-Fascist doctrine, if the films fail badly enough at some point he might stop. Its possible that if no one goes to see Abu Dhabi's films, he might decide to spend his time and money elsewhere.

Also, If you think the liberal Hollywood elites make a lot of anti American, anti war movies now, imagine if they were making a profit.