Gulf Atlantic Pictures, a London and Bahrain-based film production company, has announced plans to make quality feature films in Arabic that will be shot in the UK and other glamorous locations around Europe.

 

Gulf Atlantic Pictures intends to produce four to six Arabic feature films per year for the Arab film market and audiences. 

 

The company is already searching for good screenplays or projects that can be translated to Arabic from talented screenwriters across the Middle East region, and from Arab expats living in the UK and elsewhere, said a senior official. 

 

"Gulf Atlantic Pictures is committed to engage film industry talent from the Arab World both in front and behind the camera, as well as search out for the best available talent across the Arab world to work on the productions," remarked James Black, the company's London-based executive producer and head of production. 

 

"We want to do for the Arab film market what Bollywood is doing in the Indian film market and introduce Middle Eastern audiences to glamorous new European locations. Using new backdrops and drawing from the well respected talents of British film industry technicians will immensely improve production quality and we believe will produce the highest quality Arab language films ever seen," he added

 

Bahrain-based executive producer David Hollywood is co-ordinating the talent search across the region for the company. 

 

David is already in touch with up and coming Arab producers, directors, screenwriters, actors / actresses and other film industry talent who are keen to work alongside British and European crews on the Gulf Atlantic Pictures’ productions. 

 

The company however is still keen to grow their talent pool and welcome industry related CVs from across the Middle East region and from Arab talents living in other parts of the world.

 

With the huge demand for Arab films from Middle Eastern television networks, satellite broadcasters and the high demand for dvd and bluray Arab language films, James Black believes “there is no better time to launch the production incentive that we have announced today and create the first major Anglo-Arab production house which produces Arab language films for the Middle East market”. 

 

Gulf Atlantic Pictures was established by James Black in early 2013 and is backed by Gulf financing sources. The company is an offshoot of London based Twickenham Films and besides the proposed Arab language productions it also continues to develop English language cinema productions.

 

‘Rachel and Talal’, a heart warming story of a young Arab boy and an elderly American Jewish lady set against the background of London’s Theatreland, also ‘Bulldog Drummond –Hero for Hire’ are some of the planned productions to be shot in London and the Gulf during 2014, as well as a big budget production of ‘Saladin’ for the big screen to be shot sometime in 2015. 

 

The company is currently busy with its vampire production titled ‘Dracula Beyond the Legend’, a story set in present day London and scheduled to go into production in November 2013.

 

Other projects Gulf Atlantic Pictures are involved with are the creation of a Gulf based film studio facility that the company is currently looking to find the perfect location for, and a studio complex near to the Welsh capital Cardiff in the UK. 

 

Gulf Atlantic Pictures is supported by the Welsh Government on this venture and talks are under way with a leading California based studio management company about the planning and management of the facility.-TradeArabia News Service