In September 2021, UK director Rupert Wyatt (“The Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) began a major photo that was promoted as the country’s first Hollywood-style tent pole film in the $150 million action “Desert Warrior” around Saudi Arabia’s planned, futuristic city of Neom.
The seventh-century Arabic set film featuring the best international cast led by “Captain America” stars Anthony Mackie, Ben Kingsley and Aisha Hart (“Mogul Mowgle” and “Collette”) revolves around the Princess (Hart). Production was completed by February 2022, but the “Desert Warrior” journey to the big screen had just begun.
This film – produced by Saudi Arabian Powerhouse MBC Studios along with US producer Jeremy Bolt (“Resident Evil”) and Stuart Ford’s AGC studio, the film spent a long time in post-production hell after new MBC Management decided to remove Wyatt from the photo. As the years went by, some viewed it as the wreckage of the train.
“I had a desire to start changing the film, and it wasn’t a film I had made and I hadn’t even filmed it,” Wyatt tells Variety. “So I resisted, and I was on the sidelines. I was on the sidelines at a good time.”
However, Wyatt was eventually revived, and his “Desert Warrior” bowed at the Zurich Film Festival this weekend. Despite mixed reviews, the film drove the production value of its star to unanimous praise, thus eliminating the implications of a train wreck. The director comes from “a certain sloppy da” due to the fact that “we weren’t Hollywood” and “we had a lot of money.”
Below, Wyatt talks about the diversity of his long journey to acquire “Desert Warriors” on the big screen.
How did this project come your way?
A few years before we started this, I met producer Jeremy Bolt. We were developing a project together, but this didn’t happen. His long-time work colleague of Pete Smith, who ran the MBC studio at the time, had decided to develop this project, so I was asked to board.
What attracted you to “Desert Warriors” from the beginning?
That’s a very important story for the region. It’s like their (fighting) Agincoat. They had this notion that they were going to embark on this very ambitious epic, mainly around Princess Hind’s character. From my point of view, I saw an incredible opportunity. In other words, I have been fascinated by the region, culture and Bedouin culture for a long time. I love the desert. It was a hidden period of seventh century history, and I had little knowledge of it. The Sassanid Empire was something that fascinated me. When Jeremy approached me it became clear that there was an opportunity to make too many cameras (not heavy on special effects or studio work) within the camera due to the nature of who we were trying to make it and who we were going to do it with. It was outside of Hollywood. So I jumped at the chance, but on the condition that I could really make it my own.
What challenges did “Desert Warriors” pose?
We started scouting and then started to hit Covid-19. So we were initially suffering from a lot of delays. We were planning to enter production in 2020, but it was pushed for a few months. But in an interesting way, it gave us a great opportunity to really enter the area and get a better sense of how to work there and make a film there. Because it was all from scratch. That was truly one of the biggest challenges, I say. In other words, there were many challenges. From a storytelling perspective, this challenge was only able to truly embrace a film of this size and wrestle its emotional core. It’s always a challenge, but this has especially been the case.
Let’s talk about filming with Neom and Tabuk. The film certainly breaks new ground for the early Saudi industry. Did the fact that Saudi Arabia is on a somewhat learning curve affect physical production?
Not from my perspective. So for a few months, under one roof in the middle of the desert, there was about 600 people (no cast or extras included, but literally over 600 people, including the driver. And many of that crew came from this area. We had Jordanians, Lebanese, Syrians, all of the Arabic diaspora. And we had Canada, Italian, Serbian, American, English, Australia, South Africa. It was over 40 nationalities. It’s easy to say “Hollywood is coming to town.” But we weren’t Hollywood, so it wasn’t. We were very international filmmakers with a variety of backgrounds and cultural influences. And one of the things I found was that the experience of making films in this area was very exciting. I think it has something to do with the fact that many of us were very new experiences making films from scratch. Logistics had little support. We were there ourselves. It was like making your first film on an extraordinary scale, as people in the back room had to make the choices that are usually made. For us, it was very similar to sinking and swimming.
You were removed from the final edit and then returned. Could you please tell me about that experience?
This is what I can say. Making this film from day one is one of the best filmmaking experiences I’ve ever had, other than the challenges raised by Covid. Creatively, it was incredibly harmonious. Logistically, it’s very challenging, but ultimately it’s a success. We had surpassed the roughly four-day schedule by the time it was wrapped, a real achievement for a film of this size. And it wasn’t me, it was actually mainly my line producer Eric Hedayat and producer Jeremy. They were incredibly tenacious and really made everything on track. So, when we left the end of the main shoot, we were in a great place. There was over 300 hours of shade, which is equivalent to “Mad Max: Fury Road.”
I would say this with respect, but I am a filmmaker and have done this before. There was a bit of a simplicity from the studio. They were very supportive, but the concept of being able to cut this substantive film in 10 weeks is impossible. In other words, I have always mentioned “Mad Max” in my mind. It took them over 12 months for them to have a version of the film. So we went to work, but after about six or seven months they were able to give me a couple of months and cut back. I then flew to Dubai and showed it to my suit and it met with a really positive reaction. Green light was given for an additional week of shooting. Due to the sandstorm, we were not filming an important scene, the leprosy colony scene. So we went back and did it and were given a green light to do some pickup. At the time, there was a change of security guards at MBC, and that was when things changed for me. I had a desire to start changing the film. And it was really not a film I started making and started, and I never filmed it. And I resisted and I was taken by the sidelines. I was on the sidelines at a good time.
The film returned without my input. It has been incorrectly reported that my version of the film has been tested. That was never the case. There were two and 20 minutes cuts that I was very pleased with. Everyone seemed happy with it. And the film was recut, tested, and I don’t think it worked very well. Simply put, they asked me to come back, and they asked me to return to the condition that I would pull it down to a certain length (“Desert Warrior” is now 1 hour and 54 minutes). And my condition was that I had the creative control to do so.
The sadness for me is that up to that point we did well. I tried my best possible. we
We were not in conflict creatively, logistically or financially. It wasn’t over budget. There was this notion that we were making a film for $70 million, but this was never the case with Covid Overruns or anything like that. Covid itself put $20 million in its budget. So we have never swelled beyond our budget. We didn’t have any confusing or many re-shoots. It was just this period that I wasn’t involved in the film and they got it back. Finally, when I came back, my one request was that I had creative control. And once I came in at this length, I was fully supported. That’s what we did.
The “Desert Warrior” photo is courtesy of Neom.
“Desert Warrior” photo courtesy of Neom
This interview was compiled and condensed for clarity.
