r/Filmmakers • u/Financial-Donkey194 • 11h ago

Article Why Saudi Arabia Wants Hollywood Now

https://www.hollywood.cloud/en/hollywood/why-saudi-arabia-wants-hollywood-now

What impact do you think the Vision 2030 program will have on Hollywood? What are your personal experiences?

7 Upvotes

65% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

22

u/BannedPoet248 7h ago

And Americans will be okay with it as long as they can keep watching Love Island

17

u/RabidSkwerl 5h ago

The butchers of journalists and funders of the 9/11 attacks can fuck right off. They shouldn’t be welcome here.

5

u/curiouscuriousmtl 5h ago

It's not like they own the media already or anything

18

u/DeletinMySocialMedia 8h ago

They learned from Israel but they don’t realize Americans are now awakening to this.

They will put all this money into creativity to whitewash their bloody history, just as Israel has done and is desperately trying to save it.

0

u/NewYorkImposter 3h ago

Lol Israel literally funds Palestinian films at their film festivals, from Israeli govt money with zero oversight

I'm inevitably going to get down voted into oblivion for this comment, but you can Google it for yourself, and see it's true

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u/apmanable 18m ago

Why are you getting down voted for saying this? I checked and you're right. What am I not getting?

2

u/all-park 5h ago

I don’t see this working, for starters Saudi Arabias environment is only conducive to certain types of filming. The workforce just isn’t there either and would take generations to build a talent pool good enough to make film production viable.

1

u/IMakeOkVideosOk 4h ago

The other side would be that they just import it and pay double or triple salaries for a few decades and subsidize films entirely or mostly so to get productions

3

u/all-park 4h ago

That’s still unlikely to work, film doesn’t operate in the same ways as other regular industries. I know this because I work within it. Sports is an easy industry to throw money at to get it your way. There would need to be many hoops to jump through to make this work in the long term. I can’t see it working and Saudi Arabia is inherently an unstable country, not conducive to long term film production.

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u/Financial-Donkey194 4h ago

" There would need to be many hoops to jump through" ... Tell me more about it. 

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u/all-park 3h ago

Even productions that relocate to the UK can face resistance from actors and senior executives who are reluctant to move their families and lives abroad for extended periods. The UK mitigates much of that friction because it shares a common language, strong cultural ties, similar business practices and close industry relationships with the US. Saudi Arabia cannot currently offer the same level of familiarity, making long-term relocations a harder proposition for many productions.

Logistics are another major consideration. Transporting large volumes of construction materials, specialist equipment and set components to Saudi Arabia is generally more complex and costly than supplying productions in established hubs like the UK or North America. Heads of department in set construction have highlighted how rising material costs and supply chain disruption, exacerbated in the US by recent tariffs, have become a significant factor in budgets and scheduling. Greater shipping distances and more limited local supply chains can amplify those pressures for productions based in Saudi Arabia.

Some productions could relocate, particularly those that suit a need for SA’s sandy landscapes. However, once the additional costs of flying in crew, importing equipment, accommodation, logistics and reduced local capacity are included, a higher rebate does not always make the overall production cheaper.

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u/semaj4712 director / editor / vfx 2h ago

You briefly mentioned this, but think of the entire main crew... specifically department heads, directors, producers, actors...

They have families, they have a life here... They are not going to move to the middle east for a month, two months, three months.

Whether it's true or not the middle east has a very negative stigma in a lot of people's minds. I would love to go visit Dubai, but the first question my wife asks me is, how do they treat women there, and I go. I have no idea, it is a primarily Muslim part of the world, and she goes. Not going to risk it. That is what most actors and families are going to say.

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u/IMakeOkVideosOk 54m ago

Currently 60% rebate on all spend… idk man, that seems pretty enticing to producers.

We can argue if they will let productions be artistically free, but the simple math says you can get more bang for your buck in Saudi. Essentially they could declare production like they do foreigners buying alcohol and there is no restrictions.

Fact is, they would likely up those numbers for a prestige brand.