* I learned this morning that the Saudis tried to kick start a home grown international film industry by making a film with Western actors and production crew, and it has failed dismally at the US box office. It was actually filmed years ago, and finally got a small distributor to buy it, to no benefit:
Starring Anthony Mackie ("Captain America: Brave New World") and directed by Rupert Wyatt ("Rise of the Planet of the Apes"), "Desert Warrior" opened in North American theaters last weekend, though hardly anyone noticed. It made just $487,848 on just over 1,000 screens, making for an abysmal $483 per-screen average. That gives it one of the worst box office openings of all time, but it gets so much worse.
This movie, which most people reading this probably haven't even heard of, carries a monster $150 million production budget. It's also been caught in post-production hell for several years. As "Michael" ruled the box office on its opening weekend, this historical epic quietly bombed its way into the history books.
Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/2160537/anthony-mackie-desert-warrior-one-of-biggest-box-office-flops-ever/
Saudi Arabia is still a country I find it hard to have any sympathy for. I mean, everything it is spending money on to try to diversify just seems so wasteful. (See stupid Neom.) If they were to do something genuinely good for the world - say, embark on becoming the world's largest supplier of cheap solar panels, made from the ridiculous amount of sand that comprises their entire country - I might change my mind.
* I've watched some Youtube content lately on books and reading, and one thing that has kept coming up to an odd degree is the number of people in comments who say that The Count of Monte Cristo is just the best thing they have ever read. I didn't realise it was so beloved, and is apparently so readable. I am almost inclined to give it a try.
* I feel I always have to preference approval of a Jon Stewart video by pointing out I don't always like every take he has. But his lengthy and often exasperated look at the aborted White House Correspondents dinner last weekend was, I thought, all very funny:
1 comment:
The problem for SA is so much labour is imported. The film industry move seems so antiquated. Perhaps it is my age because I find very difficult to find good new movies. The superhero stuff is done to ridiculous lengths as are action films.
Solar panels is a no go because China has that wrapped up. SA could start up high tech industries which don't require huge amounts of infrastructure but the place is an intellectual desert so they would have import professionals from far and wide. It could set up Advanced Institutes, biomed research centres, ecological science to do something about the deserts.
That NEOM project is just plain nuts.
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