It has been a galaxy far, far away, home to ferocious sand-worms and deputised for both Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. Increasingly, though, it has simply been itself, a place of stunning desert vistas and architectural wonders.
We are talking about Hollywood’s unfolding love affair with the UAE when it comes to finding the best location for many of its biggest films.
Exactly 20 years ago, Syriana became the first Hollywood motion picture to use the UAE as a backdrop. Starring George Clooney as a CIA agent, and with a cast that included Matt Damon and Amanda Peet, the 2005 political thriller was set in a fictional Arabian Gulf oil state.
Several scenes were shot in Dubai’s Burj Al Arab hotel, while Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood and the desert around the city also featured prominently.
Since then at least a dozen more Hollywood films have been shot in the UAE. The most recent, released in November this year, is the third instalment of the Now You See Me series. Over 13 days of shooting, locations including Yas Island, Sheikh Zayed Bridge, W Hotel and Liwa all featured prominently in the story of crime-fighting magicians.
Credit for attracting the makers of Now You See Me 3 must go to the Abu Dhabi Film Commission which offers a generous 35 per cent cashback rebate to qualifying productions, along with assistance in finding locations and local expertise.
The ADFC was set up in 2009, with David Shepheard appointed from London as its first commissioner.
The increased focus on film came as the UAE was “just starting having the conversations about diversifying the economy away from oil and the film industry was courting Abu Dhabi and Dubai quite heavily, because they had money to invest in the industry,” said Mr Shepheard.
“My boss at the time, Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei [late chairman of Abu Dhabi Media], was trying to establish more of a local film industry.
“So my brief was to court Hollywood and international film production, but that was the icing on the cake. It was more about developing the local film industry and having an infrastructure for Emiratis to be able to tell their own stories and to make films for Arab audiences.”
Burj Khalifa's blockbuster moment
The “icing on the cake”, though, was to provide much of the earlier success. In 2011 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol wowed cinema audiences as Tom Cruise performed a stunt at the top of the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
“That opened up the eyes of filmmakers to what the UAE has and it just grew from there. Filmmakers are always looking for a new place that hasn't been seen on screen before, that they can bring to the world in their movies,” Mr Shepheard said.
“So I think after Mission: Impossible, there was a lot of interest in the UAE, both in Abu Dhabi and Dubai as places to bring those bigger movies.”
By then the ADFC was talking to the Lucasfilm team, headed by Kathleen Kennedy, about the long-awaited sequel to the original Star Wars trilogy. The 1977 original A New Hope had used Tunisia as a location, but for the 2015 The Force Awakens, the Abu Dhabi desert around Liwa Oasis was chosen.
The same area was used for the desert planet Arrakis, the fictional location for the two Dune films, released in 2021 and 2023. Star Trek Beyond (2016) repurposed Dubai for the 23rd century thanks to its futuristic architecture. In 2017, War Machine, starring Brad Pitt, saw Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah double for Afghanistan. Ten years earlier, The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx, had Abu Dhabi standing in for Riyadh.
Life in the fast lane
Increasingly, though, filmmakers have wanted the UAE to represent itself. Furious 7, the 2015 edition of the Fast and the Furious series, was filmed at Emirates Palace, Yas Marina F1 circuit, as well as Jumeirah at Etihad Tower for a scene in which a car jumps across the hotel's twin towers.
Yas Marina naturally featured as itself in this year’s F1: The Movie, while Cruise returned to the UAE for the 2023 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, with his character Ethan Hunt running across the roof of the Midfield Terminal at Zayed International Airport even before it had opened.
Using the location almost as a character in a film can be important as a promotional tool.
“That's always the goal of someone like a film commissioner, because if you can have the place be as it is, that helps with the promotion of it,” says Mr Shepheard, who left the commission in 2014 and now works in Canada
“The trade-off in having a major film calling your city by its own name is that it then goes on screens globally. As long as there's a positive storyline, it's a real added bonus of free promotion because eyeballs around the world are actually seeing the city you're trying to promote.”
The other area the film commission supports is emerging Arab talent. The award-winning 2012 breakout hit Wadjda, about a 10-year-old girl negotiating contemporary Saudi culture, was made possible thanks to a $100,000 (Dh367,000) prize awarded by the ADFC to writer and director Haifaa Al Mansour in 2009.
“There are 300 million Arab-speaking people in the region. So there's a massive audience that's hungry for stories from their language and culture,” Mr Shepheard said.
Local talent has also been developed in other ways. Sameer Al Jaberi, head of the Abu Dhabi Film Commission since 2024, first worked there, Mr Shepheard remembers, as an intern.
THREE
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Teachers' pay - what you need to know
Pay varies significantly depending on the school, its rating and the curriculum. Here's a rough guide as of January 2021:
- top end schools tend to pay Dh16,000-17,000 a month - plus a monthly housing allowance of up to Dh6,000. These tend to be British curriculum schools rated 'outstanding' or 'very good', followed by American schools
- average salary across curriculums and skill levels is about Dh10,000, recruiters say
- it is becoming more common for schools to provide accommodation, sometimes in an apartment block with other teachers, rather than hand teachers a cash housing allowance
- some strong performing schools have cut back on salaries since the pandemic began, sometimes offering Dh16,000 including the housing allowance, which reflects the slump in rental costs, and sheer demand for jobs
- maths and science teachers are most in demand and some schools will pay up to Dh3,000 more than other teachers in recognition of their technical skills
- at the other end of the market, teachers in some Indian schools, where fees are lower and competition among applicants is intense, can be paid as low as Dh3,000 per month
- in Indian schools, it has also become common for teachers to share residential accommodation, living in a block with colleagues
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
If you go
The flights
Emirates (www.emirates.com) and Etihad (www.etihad.com) both fly direct to Bengaluru, with return fares from Dh 1240. From Bengaluru airport, Coorg is a five-hour drive by car.
The hotels
The Tamara (www.thetamara.com) is located inside a working coffee plantation and offers individual villas with sprawling views of the hills (tariff from Dh1,300, including taxes and breakfast).
When to go
Coorg is an all-year destination, with the peak season for travel extending from the cooler months between October and March.
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
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The%20specs
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Expert advice
“Join in with a group like Cycle Safe Dubai or TrainYAS, where you’ll meet like-minded people and always have support on hand.”
Stewart Howison, co-founder of Cycle Safe Dubai and owner of Revolution Cycles
“When you sweat a lot, you lose a lot of salt and other electrolytes from your body. If your electrolytes drop enough, you will be at risk of cramping. To prevent salt deficiency, simply add an electrolyte mix to your water.”
Cornelia Gloor, head of RAK Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Centre
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can ride as fast or as far during the summer as you do in cooler weather. The heat will make you expend more energy to maintain a speed that might normally be comfortable, so pace yourself when riding during the hotter parts of the day.”
Chandrashekar Nandi, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai
Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
Torque: 320Nm
Price: From Dh147,000
Available: Now
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
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Sheer grandeur
The Owo building is 14 storeys high, seven of which are below ground, with the 30,000 square feet of amenities located subterranean, including a 16-seat private cinema, seven lounges, a gym, games room, treatment suites and bicycle storage.
A clear distinction between the residences and the Raffles hotel with the amenities operated separately.
Muslim Council of Elders condemns terrorism on religious sites
The Muslim Council of Elders has strongly condemned the criminal attacks on religious sites in Britain.
It firmly rejected “acts of terrorism, which constitute a flagrant violation of the sanctity of houses of worship”.
“Attacking places of worship is a form of terrorism and extremism that threatens peace and stability within societies,” it said.
The council also warned against the rise of hate speech, racism, extremism and Islamophobia. It urged the international community to join efforts to promote tolerance and peaceful coexistence.
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
