From November 30th to December 9th, the “Red Sea International Film Festival” in Saudi Arabia welcomed a number of Hollywood stars. Among others, Chris Hemsworth, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, Will Smith and Halle Berry visited the port city of Jeddah.
Variety reports that the actors received a generous sum for their appearance on the red carpet. Will Smith is said to have received the equivalent of a million dollars, and Gwyneth Paltrow even more. The stars are also said to have been accommodated in luxury hotels.
“A dramatic turnaround in relations”
The event and guest list signaled “a dramatic turn in relations” between Saudi Arabia and the Hollywood industry, the magazine wrote. Business between the desert state and the dream factory had declined to a minimum over the past five years. This development came after anti-government journalist Jamal Kashoggi was murdered in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Big plans between Hollywood and Saudi Arabia
The guest list for the fourth Red Sea International Film Festival shows that relations appear to be improving again. However, there are still points that are “suspicious“ seem. There have been rumors floating around for a few weeks that the desert state wants to buy the Paramount studios. “Variety“ also reports that former Warner Bros. production president and head of Stampede Ventures Greg Silverman just celebrated signing a three-year, $350 million deal with production studio AlUla.
He said in an interview with the Brachenblatt: “We have been looking for a home for our film selection and are very excited about the opportunity to work with ‘AlUla’. They have state-of-the-art studios and it’s an incredible place for our talent to be when they’re not on set. “We should also be grateful as a film industry that we have 35 million new film consumers who were not in our market five years ago.”