Egypt’s ‘Feathers’ Dominates Critics’ Awards For Arab Films

Demi Lovato performed their new track “Skin of My Teeth” on Thursday’s “Tonight Show” for the first time.

Even the Queen of England loves that concrete jungle where dreams are made of.

Alicia Keys is seemingly addressing the backlash surrounding her performance at Queen Elizabeth‘s Platinum Jubilee concert.

Saudi Arabia is getting its own version of “The Office.”“Al Maktab,” the name of the Saudi Arabian version, will span 20 episodes. MBC Studios is producing the show, after making a deal with BBC Studios, which licenses the franchise.The new version, which begins production in June, is set at a courier company.It will star Saleh Abuamrh, who will play the boss – Malik Al-Tuwaifi.

The Office is set to air later this year.BBC Studios recently struck a deal with local producer and broadcaster MBC, who will air the new show via streamer Shahid VIP.The new remake will be called Al Maktab and will be directed by Egyptian filmmaker Hisham Fathi, according to Deadline.The self-absorbed boss played by Ricky Gervais in the UK version and Steve Carell in the US remake will be played by Saleh Abuamrh in Al Maktab, and is called Malik Al-Tuwaif.So far, The Office has been remade in 10 territories including France, Germany, Canada and India. Al Maktab will be the first in the Arabic language.André Renaud, BBC Studios’ SVP Format Sales, said in a statement: “Although office working may look slightly different for many of us in 2022, the familiarity of these well-observed characters as they navigate petty rivalries, moments of friendship and humour, and a boss that sometimes makes a fool of themselves still rings just as true.”Meanwhile, several cast members of The Office revealed they were “almost killed twice” while filming episode ‘Work Bus’. Actors Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, who play Pam Beesley and Angela Martin in the US sitcom, recalled the incident in their new book The Office BFFs: Tales Of The Office From Two Best Friends Who Were There.The episode, directed by Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston, saw Dwight (Rainn Wilson) convert a bus into an office space after Jim (John Krasinski) convinces him the office building is unsafe.In an excerpt from the book on Mashable, Kinsey wrote: “We want you to know that we see the irony that Bryan Cranston, aka Walter White Sr.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentBBC Studios and Dubai-based MBC Studios have teamed on the first Arabic-language adaptation of “The Office.” Titled “Al Maktab,” the Arabic redo of the groundbreaking BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning British comedy series will be set in Saudi Arabia.Egypt’s Hisham Fathi (“Ending So Gently”) will direct with Italy’s Alessandro Martella serving a director of photography and Ryad-based AFLAM Productions’ Shadi Mcdad handling line producer duties.Cameras are set to roll in June on this MBC Studios original on which the BBC Studios international production team, who have licensed the format, will also have input. The plan is for the twenty-episode show to air on MBC’s linear TV channels, and stream on its Shahid VIP streaming platform later this year.

A couple on their honeymoon have had to fork out £1,000 for accommodation after their easyJet flight back to the UK from Egypt was suddenly cancelled.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentProlific Italian film and stage director Mario Martone, who is a Venice aficionado, is back in competition in Cannes 27 years after his Elena Ferrante adaptation “L’amore molesto” (“Troubling Love”) launched in competition from the Croisette in 1995. And there is a close connection between these two films that delve deep into the entrails of Martone’s native Naples.In his well-received “Nostalgia”, praised by Variety as Martone’s “most rewarding film in years,” ace actor Pierfrancesco Favino plays the middle-aged Felice Lasco, who returns to the bustling port city after having lived in Egypt for 40 years. Once back, he is caught up in memories of a distant life spent in his hometown, as his criminal youth slowly catches up with him.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorLeading arthouse sales company the Match Factory has acquired the rights to “Bachmann & Frisch,” a biopic about the radical Austrian writer and poet Ingeborg Bachmann, directed by Venice Golden Lion winner Margarethe von Trotta. The film stars Vicky Krieps — who appears in two Cannes Film Festival films this year, “Corsage” and “More Than Ever” — as the poet, and Ronald Zehrfeld (“Barbara,” “Phoenix”) as her partner, the Swiss writer Max Frisch.The pickup follows the international sales success for the Match Factory with Von Trotta’s “Hannah Arendt” in 2012.

In 2017, Swedish-Egyptian director Tarek Saleh’s breakthrough film “The Nile Hilton Incident” was the subject of much controversy and was ultimately banned in Egypt due to its in-depth portrayal of police corruption in modern-day Egypt. Five years later, Saleh is back with “Boy From Heaven” (“Walad Min Al Janna“), a transfixing feature tackling the harsh realities that occur in the country, this time exploring the complicated and corrupt relationship between religion and politics.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSwedish/Egyptian director Tarik Saleh is in competition in Cannes with “Boy From Heaven” his second film to delve into the underbelly of modern Egypt — and the Arab world at large — following his 2017 political thriller “The Nile Hilton Incident,” which depicted political power abuse and police corruption. “Nile Hilton” won the grand jury prize at Sundance and was banned in Egypt.In Saleh’s new potentially explosive pic, the young protagonist Adam, who is the son of a small-town Egyptian fisherman, is offered the privilege of studying at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, which is the epicenter of power of Sunni Islam.

A boyfriend accused of cheating on his partner while on a lads holiday faced some embarrassing poolside revenge.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“The Bourne Identity” helmer Doug Liman is attached to direct the adaptation of a chapter from acclaimed nonfiction book “Rise And Kill First.” It details how Israel’s Mossad reached out in desperation to former Nazi Waffen SS lieutenant colonel Otto Skorzeny, a favourite of Hitler’s -branded by British intelligence services as “the most dangerous man in Europe,” to thwart an existential threat to Israel’s existence.The stranger-than-fiction true story is set up at New York’s Story Syndicate (“I’ll Be Gone In the Dark,” “Britney vs Spears,” “Becoming Cousteau”), headed by Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning Dan Cogan and Liz Garbus, and at Israel’s Abot Hameiri, producer of “Shtisel,” “The Attaché” and “Power Couple.” A Fremantle company, its co-founder, Guy Hameiri, assembled the world-class direction-production team. A Cannes Festival alum with 2010’s Palme d’Or contender “Fair Game,” Liman will also oversee development of the limited series.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentCairo-based film marketing and distribution outfit MAD Solutions has taken an equity ownership stake in New York’s revived arthouse distributor D Street Releasing.The partnership will extend the reach of MAD Solutions’ theatrical distribution operations, giving it an inroad into the U.S. arthouse sector where so far Arab cinema has been largely reliant on festival exposure.MAD Solutions, which is a top distributor of specialty Arab cinema across the West Asia region, now plans to release between five and seven standout titles from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arabic-speaking countries to North American audiences.D Street Releasing, which has been largely dormant in recent years, is a division of D Street Media Group, the New York-based production, distribution and music publishing company with affiliate operations in the U.S., Germany, Ecuador, Argentina and South Africa.