Saudi Arabias Hollywood Dreams Are Going Up in Smoke

It seemed like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. In May, inside a white tent on the French Riviera with the green flag of Saudi Arabia waving overhead, Hollywood producers and agents were sipping strong coffee from tiny cups and picking at plates of dates. Representing his countrys first-ever delegation at the Cannes Film Festival, Ahmad Al Maziad, the C.E.O. of Saudi Arabias General Culture Authority, was making the case for his kingdom to his Hollywood guests, offering branded tote bags, lushly photographed brochures of Saudi film locations, and the promise of some of the worlds most generous film-production tax incentives. “Were coming to build an industry,” Al Maziad said during an interview in the back of the tent.

Five months later, the partnerships Riyadh and Hollywood began to forge appear to be falling apart over the disappearance—and alleged murder—of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi from the countrys consulate in Turkey earlier this month. On Monday, Endeavor, the talent agency that had entered a deal to receive $400 million from the Saudi Public Investment Fund in exchange for a 5 to 10 percent ownership stake, was working towards breaking the arrangement, according to a source close to the company. At a trade show in France, Endeavor C.E.O. Ari Emanuel told an audience that he was “personally really concerned” about the disappearance of Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Actor Gerard Butler canceled a plan to fly to Saudi Arabia this week to promote his new military thriller, Hunter Killer, telling reporters during a press stop at the Pentagon on Monday that “it felt incredibly insensitive to go to Saudi Arabia.” A spokesman for the WWE, which plans to host a major wrestling event in Saudi Arabia in November, said they are “currently monitoring the situation.”

Khashoggis disappearance, which Turkish officials attribute to a grisly assassination and cover-up by Saudi agents, comes as the entertainment industry had just been getting started in Saudi Arabia, at the behest of the kingdoms controversial young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. (According to reports, Saudi officials, who have denied involvement in Khashoggis disappearance, are preparing to blame it on a botched interrogation attempt.) In the spring, as part of a coast-to-coast charm offensive that included a meeting with President Donald Trump, M.B.S., as he is known, visited Los Angeles and met with media moguls like Disney C.E.O. Bob Iger, Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch, and Oprah Winfrey. He pitched his reforms—which included allowing women to drive and ending a 35-year ban on cinemas—and sought high-stakes partnerships in the entertainment business. “He made an impassioned plea to me to consider building Disneyland in Saudi Arabia, and I listened with curiosity and somewhat of an open mind,” Iger told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations this spring. “I ended up saying that I would visit and see for myself. . . . Whether we grow or not there, I dont know, but Ill go.”

In April, a showing of Black Panther at an ornate, 1,000-seat performance hall in Riyadh opened a box-office market projected to reach $1 billion. “This is gonna be like Hamilton for a while, because we cant build the cinemas fast enough,” National Organization of Theatre Owners President John Fithian said at the time. Saudi Arabias tax incentives—a 35 percent location rebate on production costs for films that shoot in the country, and a 50 percent rebate on salaries for any local talent employed—are higher than the rebates in Canada, the U.K., and New Zealand, which have driven major Hollywood productions to those countries.

Though there seemed to be promise in the market when the Saudis touted their plans at Cannes, there also was skepticism that such a conservative country could work with Hollywood. Movies exhibited there will be censored in accordance with Saudi norms; at its screenings, Black Panther had a short kissing scene excised. Western filmmakers who shoot in Saudi Arabia will have to conform to “content guidelines” that Al Maziad and his colleagues are currently developing.

“Hollywoods business in Saudi Arabia has been somewhat of a smoke screen,” said one veteran studio executive. “Its a potentially interesting market, but its not in the near future a game changer. A lot of people have announced things because it sounded good. In terms of it affecting their [profits and loss], its not significant. There are only three theaters there now and very few movies can get through the [censorship issues]. One day it could be a big market, but its not going to be if the human-rights violations continue.”

For Hollywood, the stakes might be low—but for the small community of Saudis who have begun to work in the industry, they are immeasurably higher. Saudi-born filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour, who recently made the Netflix film Nappily Ever After, was planning to return to her country to begin shooting The Perfect Candidate, about a female doctor, financed by Germany and Saudi Arabia, and made with help from the new Saudi filmmaking incentives. “The most exciting thing for me is to see more films coming from Saudi,” al-Mansour said during an interview in April. “A lot of Saudi young people are hungry to see themselves.” Al-Mansour did not return a request for comment about how her plans have been affected by Khashoggis disappearance.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks with high-level Saudi leaders about Khashoggi, and State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Pompeo “thanked the king for his commitment to supporting a thorough, transparent, and timely investigation” of the Khashoggi disappearance and made clear his “concern” about the case to the foreign minister.

Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Rebecca KeeganRebecca Keegan is a Hollywood Correspondent for Vanity Fair.Nicole SperlingNicole Sperling is a Hollywood Correspondent for Vanity Fair.

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