One of the goals of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious Vision 2023 is to position the Kingdom as a prime location and film hub for the industry worldwide. The two main pillars of this project are AlUla and Neom.
AlUla is a historical area near the Hijaz Mountains in the country’s northwest where traces of human life dating back 200,000 years have been discovered. Besides the AlUla landscape, in the desert there are hundreds of breathtaking Nabatean tombs that have recently been rediscovered. These massive rock tombs were built by the same civilization that built Petra, the spectacular archeological site in neighboring Jordan. The futuristic transformation of AlUla has earned it a place on the international locations map.
A number of domestic and foreign feature films, shorts, documentaries, and commercials have already been filmed at AlUla, including the action film Kandahar, a Thunder Road Pictures/Capstone production directed by Ric Roman Waugh, due to be released this month. Another attraction of AlUla, which has appeared in several music videos, is Maraya, the world’s largest mirrored building.
With an area the size of Belgium (over 8,687 square miles), AlUla comprises two mountain ranges, the Sharaan nature reserve with 579 square miles of red rock canyon and valleys, an oasis with 80 natural springs, 500 ancient rock inscriptions, the ruins of the ancient Nabatean city of Hegra, a 12th-Century town, and a total of 111 awe-inspiring tombs that have been preserved in the dry and hot desert air.
AlUla also boasts a “Film Residence,” which offers accommodations with 300 fully furnished units, office space for short and long-term stays designed to cater to the needs of production companies, and additional accommodation options for talent and crew at Habitas AlUla, Banyan Tree AlUla and Shaden Resort. A new film and TV studio complex will have completed its first phase by the last quarter of this year with 330,000 square feet, two soundstages, a Pyro/SFX building, a 70,000 square-foot backlot and a sound recording studio.
Film AlUla is the agency in charge of AlUla. It offers production companies free location scouting within AlUla, assistance in navigating government regulations, approvals, generous financial incentives, and finding crews and facilities services. Charlene Deleon-Jones is Executive Director of FilmAlUla.
Northwest of AlUla, on the Red Sea, is Neom, a region of 10,231 square miles, with 286 miles of coastline, 41 islands off the coast, snow-capped mountains in the background, and a more temperate climate than the rest of Saudi Arabia.
== Davidkhanian