By Nick Vivarelli, Ali Jaafar, "Qatar gets into film biz with 'Rumi'" - Variety - Los Angeles, CA, USAWednesday, May 21, 2008
The Gulf state of Qatar is getting into the international film biz with "Rumi -- The Fire of Love," an English-language biopic of Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet, with Deepak Chopra on board as script consultant.
Pic, casting in L.A. for an A-list U.S. star to topline, is budgeted at $25 million, the bulk of which is to be provided by the Qatar Foundation, headed by Sheikha Mozah, wife of the Emir of Qatar.
Indian helmer Muzaffar Ali, who has long been associated with Sufi music and Sufism, will helm "Rumi" with Oscar-winning lenser Vittorio Storaro on board behind camera.
Italo producer Igor Ubaldi is shepherding via his Rome-based Istar Prods. Uboldi said shooting is expected to start in January in Turkey and other Middle Eastern locations where the founder of the order of the Whirling Dervishes embarked on his spiritual quest in the Middle Ages.
Rumi's poetry has been widely translated globally, with millions of present-day readers.
The "Rumi" project is the first of what is expected to be a number of film initiatives Qatar announced this year.
[Picture: Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser al-Missned. Photo from Her Highness Official Website http://www.mozahbintnasser.qa/output/page1.asp].
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