Launching of the Saudi Arabian production company Red Palm Pictures – The Hollywood Reporter
Saudi writer and director Tawfiq Al-Zaidi
Courtesy of Twenty One Entertainment
Saudi Arabia’s fast-growing film industry has a new production company.
Red Palm Pictures will be led by former Universal executive Paul Chesney and will focus on developing and producing original film, television and documentary content for theatrical and streaming releases in the Middle East, North Africa and around the world. The company will be based out of Riyadh and will operate alongside the recently launched distribution company TwentyOne Entertainment, which Chesney also oversees. The two new entities will work together under one roof.
Revealed just days before the opening of the third edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, Red Palm Pictures embarks on a multi-film deal with Saudi writer Tawfiq Al-Zaidi, whose debut feature Noura had its world premiere at the festival and was selected. By TwentyOne Entertainment. The first project from the deal is the action-adventure drama Soraya, written and directed by Al-Zaidi.
“There is a new wave of filmmaking in Saudi Arabia right now, and amazing undiscovered talent, both behind and in front of the camera,” said Chesney, CEO of Red Palm Pictures. “Our goal is to be at the forefront of this growth and transformation, nurturing filmmakers and giving them local stories from within Saudi Arabia, as well as international co-productions. I am thrilled to be working with visionary Tawfiq Al-Zaidi, and I am also thrilled to help him bring his imagination and amazing ideas to life.”
Al-Zaidi added: “I could not be more excited to enter into this partnership with Paul Chesney and Red Palm Pictures who understand and appreciate my dreams as a filmmaker in the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. My ambition is to present important and unforgettable stories with limitless imagination, and to establish Saudi Arabia as a true creative force in the global film community.
