Mahdi Ahmed

Genie, the fantasy/ drama/ adventure tale about a motherless boy who befriends the titular Genie in a bottle has been updated and rewritten. I was comissioned to write it by director Abdul Fatthaah as a short film three years ago. However the script was shelved when Fatthaah quit the production company helmed to produce Genie. After three long years and few national awards later, Fatthaah has decided to bring the script to screen with his recently joined production company, Dash. Or he might also produce Genie under his own company, Red Productions. 

 

This time, Fatthaah has envisioned of a bigger production, colorful costumes, spectacular visual effects and the movie to be a feature length with several character changes and introduction of a villian. Fattaah will co-direct with visionary director, Mohamed Shareef. He has also brought popular artist, Hassan as his production designer. Fatthaah and Shary directing together sound interesting. Both are two versatile directors with two different visual styles. Lets see how they weave a family oriented movie. I have faith in them.

 

Now for some insight on the screenplay changes. I have given a backstory to the boy. It shows some brief moments of him with his mother and her untimely death. I wanted to make the death scene intense but then decided to diluted since this movie is targetted for family viewing. No, needless for a hanky.

 

The new character introduced is the villian who also happened to be a witch of more than 800 years. Oh dear, who’s going to dig that? She’s an expert on collecting or shall I say, bottling famous mythical and unearthly characters including E.T. and the entire ALIEN and PREDATOR franchise. Also expect a firey battle sequence between her and the Genie. I just hope Fatthaah and Shary will make the visuals stunning.

 

Genie also casts the return of an award winning actress. Sorry, her name cannot be revealed at this point of time. Fathaah is planning on a bigger way of announcing this production. However, she will play the mother of the boy. Now who is going to play the villian? Let’s wait and see when Fatthaah finally announces the entire cast including the Genie. The latter will be played by… Grrr, I wish I could tell.

 

The pre-production has started and the production is scheduled to start in March. The main locations has been scouted in Ha. Kelai.