Movies
Hollywood Genre Master Tells Tale of ‘The Jinn’
Do we really need another movie based on the legend of the Jinn? Ok, maybe we do. We’ve yet to see one executed to perfection, and the idea of an evil spirit roaming a desert is not only cool, but slightly relevant. An Abu Dhabi production company has brought in a Hollywood director to make the UAE’s first feature-length horror film, local daily The National reported on Friday. Imagenation, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), said the film is entitled The Jinn and is based on the genie in Arab folklore of the same name, according the newspaper. The film follows the life of a couple who return to the UAE and start to experience strange and unexplained happenings. The production company will not reveal who they had teamed up with to produce The Jinn only teasing “I can say that he is one of Hollywood’s horror genre masters,” Daniella Tully, Imagenation’s vice-president of development and a producer of the film, was quoted as saying. Any guesses?
“The film is in Arabic with some English in it. Casting has begun in the UAE, Cairo, Amman and the US for Emirati and Arab characters and an American one, generally representative of the natural character and make-up of UAE society,” Rami Yasin, head of production at Imagenation and another of the producers, was quoted as saying.
Jinn are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings that are made of fire and usually invisible to humans.
They can be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent, but the evil ones have the ability to torment humans. Local newspaper reports of jinn kidnapping children or convincing people to do bad things are not uncommon.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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