A brand-new full-length trailer for the upcoming action film "Kandahar," which stars Hollywood actor Gerard Butler, has been released.
In a matter of months, specifically on May 26, a groundbreaking event will occur as the first major Hollywood film shot in AlUla is set to be released. The movie “Kandahar,” starring Gerard Butler as the lead, may seem like an unexpected choice for an action film set in Saudi Arabia, featuring guns and action-packed scenes, but it was also the first major production to film entirely in Saudi Arabia, with a significant portion of it taking place in AlUla.
Working on movies like "Angel Has Fallen" and "Greenland," Butler is reunited with director Ric Roman Waugh for this project. Butler and Waugh are reunited in the G-BASE, Thunder Road, Capstone Studios, and MBC Studios film, which tells the tale of Tom Harris, a CIA agent operating undercover who becomes lost in Afghanistan's treacherous interior. After his covert operation is discovered, he and his Afghan interpreter must battle their way to an extraction site in Kandahar, all the while dodging elite enemy forces and international spies tasked with tracking them down.
The historic locale, where the Gerard Butler actioner created history, has grown to play a significant role in the nation's ambitious filmmaking goals. Few in Hollywood would have known about AlUla only a few years back. It was previously perhaps best known for being a part of the historic Incense Route and home to Saudi Arabia's first UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area is located in the northwest of Saudi Arabia and is surrounded by sand dunes, desert oases, and ancient ruins, some of which date back to the Neolithic period of the Stone Age.
AlUla, however, has emerged as a key component of the nation's cinematic goals as a result of massive expenditures made to entice foreign films, develop infrastructure, and establish a fully-fledged filmmaking center where there was previously almost no film industry.
With a portfolio of SR879 million ($234 million), Saudi Arabia's Cultural Development Fund (CDF) announced the beginning of its film sector financing program. It is a project of the IGNITE Digital Content Program. By providing the private sector with financial options that support local content and advance filmmaking, it seeks to establish a robust and long-term Saudi film industry.
Other movies made in AlUla include "Cherry," starring Tom Holland, and Tawfik Al-Zaidi's "Norah," the first Saudi feature film ever made in AlUla.
