Dubai outfit pick up rights to Susan Abulhawa’s best-selling novel

Filmworks Dubai has picked up the film rights to Susan Abulhawa’s international best-selling English-language novel Mornings in Jenin from Barcelona based literary and film agency Pontas.

Mornings In Jenin tells the story of the Abulheja family in 1940s Palestine who are removed from their home and forced to live in a refugee camp. The story is seen through the eyes of the bright granddaughter as she witnesses one brother join the Israeli army and the other the Palestinian cause.

“The novel was originally published in English by Bloomsbury and has also been sold in more than 20 other territories, proving to be a real phenomenon in Italy and Norway, among other territories,” Anna Soler-Pont, head of the Pontas agency, told ScreenDaily.

She adds: “This is going to be a special project. There aren’t any epic films on Palestine yet.”

Tim Smythe and Rami Yasin at Filmworks Dubai are attached as producers and will be leading the project’s development with plans to go into production at the end of 2013. Yasin confirmed to ScreenDaily that they are at the very early stages of development and so don’t have a director, cast or shooting dates and locations confirmed yet.

Filmworks Dubai produced Ali F Mostafa’s romantic drama City Of Life and Tobe Hooper’s thriller Djinn. They were also production partners on several major Hollywood projects, including Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Kingdom and Syriana.

 

Tim Smythe and Rami Yasin at Filmworks Dubai are attached as producers and will be leading the project’s development with plans to go into production at the end of 2013. Yasin confirmed to ScreenDaily that they are at the very early stages of development and so don’t have a director, cast or shooting dates and locations confirmed yet.

Filmworks Dubai produced Ali F Mostafa’s romantic drama City Of Life and Tobe Hooper’s thriller Djinn. They were also production partners on several major Hollywood projects, including Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Kingdom and Syriana.

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