The Red Sea International Film Festival is run by a foundation chaired by Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al-Saud, the Saudi culture minister. Nobody at the company was willing to comment this week. What's Love Got To Do With It will have been entered in the Festival by distributor Studio Canal. The music producer Naughty Boy, who also worked on the picture, confirmed on Monday that he will be going, and said: 'I am looking forward to it.' The latter, a romcom scripted by Jemima Khan, will be the opening night premiere of a film festival in Saudi Arabia next weekĪgents for Lily James did not return requests for comment. She is understood to be on a press tour to promote the film Matilda. 'I thought about this a lot, and I feel that, on balance, there is value in screening a film about multiculturalism and tolerance, featuring strong, independent women, in a country where just five years ago, cinema-going was illegal and women weren't allowed to drive, nor go out in public without a male 'guardian', let alone make films.'Ī spokesman for Thompson, who has been a great advocate for human rights and supported organisations including Amnesty International, said this week she would not be attending. ![]() But I have learned from my years in Pakistan that, while shunning people rarely brings change, engaging through art and culture sometimes can. 'I have always been and continue to be critical of the Saudi government's human rights abuses. Khan is planning to attend, but says she agonised over the decision. It was made by British film company Working Title, whose co-chairs - Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner - are both CBEs. The latter, a romcom scripted by Jemima Khan, will be the opening night premiere. There is further British involvement, with two UK films - Sam Mendes's Empire Of Light, starring Olivia Colman, and Shekhar Kapur's What's Love Got To Do With It, with Lily James and Dame Emma Thompson - being screened at the event. It is not known whether the director was paid a fee for attending, but industry sources say that it would be standard for attendees to receive one, as well as free travel and accommodation. Ritchie's agent at WME did not respond to requests for comment, nor did his lawyer Matthew Saver. He will also give a talk about his career at the event, which is run by the country's culture minister. ![]() ![]() Next Thursday, director Guy Ritchie will receive an 'honorary award to recognise his exceptional contribution to the film industry' at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah. The regime has reportedly carried out 12 beheadings in recent weeks, and it is widely accepted that government agents murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Some of the biggest names in British film stand accused of being involved in 'art-washing' after agreeing to take part in a film festival in Saudi Arabia next week. ![]() The film will be released in America on December 23, and in the UK in January. I started looking at the kind of extreme living - the passion, ambition and recklessness of all stripes - that characterised Hollywood at that time, and it got my brain going.' Robbie, in London this week to promote the film, said she didn't think she was anything like Nellie - who rockets to fame but ends up overwhelmed by gambling debts and drugs - 'but then I have friends who've seen the movie and they go: 'That's totally you!' ' When asked if making the film made her nostalgic for old Hollywood, she said: 'I think there's way less drugs now.' Co-star Pitt chimed in: 'Sadly, true.'ĭirector Chazelle said: 'Towards the end of the 1920s there was this sort of rash of suicides, deaths, drug overdoses and I found it coincided with the transition from silent to sound. She joked that she told herself: 'Just don't look down, and don't back up.' I remember thinking: 'Thank God we have some really uninhibited extras in Los Angeles.' went on for ever, with about 37 insane things happening, like people snorting coke off naked bodies. Margot Robbie plays actress Nellie La Roy - loosely based on wild child Clara Bow (aka 'The It Girl') - and Brad Pitt is actor and director Jack Conrad in BabylonĪctress Jean Smart (of Hacks) plays a gossip columnist who is also present at the party.
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