LOS ANGELES:

Variety

McCarthy

Top Middle East free-toair broadcaster MBC Group’s production arm O3 Productions and Image Nation Abu Dhabi have announced a partnership to co-finance and co-produce a slate of films from Saudi Arabia that will target local, regional and global audiences.

Most details of the four new features are being kept under wraps, but genres are “likely to include, action, thriller, real-life dramas and comedies,” according to a statement.

The projects will aim to film in Saudi and utilize local talent in front of and behind the camera. Development has begun on all of them, with production set to start in 2019.

One of the films is being written by Saudi comedian and screenwriter Fahad Al Butairi. The project titled, “Love Above the Law,” is a comedy about a middle-class Saudi man who marries a girl from the Badiya, the country’s rural community, and the two discovering they actually have a lot in common, the statement said.

The deal between Saudi-owned MBC and Emirati-owned Image Nation, which is a Middle East production powerhouse, follows opening of the first movie theaters in Saudi last month after a 35-year religionrelated ban on cinemas was lifted last December. (RTRS)