Sheherzade: Hollywood Movie Plans Pakistan Shoot

A THREE-MEMBER Hollywood delegation including the director and two producers of a film, Sheherzade, arrived in Lahore Tuesday to give a presentation to the Punjab chief minister and finalize the modalities of the multi-million dollar project on May 6.

The News learned Tuesday the team was headed by Salman Pirzada, the director of the movie to be shot near Chakwal, while other members of the delegation are Scott JT Frank and James Figetakis.

The producers and the director from Hollywood are in Pakistan at the CM’s invitation to finalize negotiations for the filming of the multi-million dollar American feature film Sheherzade: The Untold Story.more

One of the producers of the epic movie, Peter Ziebert, who was already in Pakistan before the arrival of other members, said the initial idea of filming in Pakistan was the brainchild of director Salman Pirzada, who had been living abroad for 37 years and spent over 30 years in the UK before moving to Los Angles.

Pirzada was involved in the British filmdom and earned a good name in the industry. However, it is an astonishing fact that he and his family never applied for British citizenship nor did they surrender their Pak nationality.

Sheherzade: The Untold Story is an attempt to bring the East and the West closer especially after the 9/11 episode and present the cultured, soft and civilized face of Muslims to the Western world by recreating the glorious past of the Islamic empire in the 13th century.

Pirzada and his team enjoy the reputation of being progressive, humanist and broadminded in Hollywood. When he went to his Hollywood colleagues with the idea of the movie, they instantly agreed to it since many Americans in the media and the filmdom do not agree with the way the American and the Western media has been portraying Islam and the Muslims in general and the Pakistanis in particular.

The film is currently at an advanced stage of pre-production. The producers say their production staff has done extensive research on Pakistan. One of the producers says, “We know exactly what is available for our production needs in Pakistan and how much we have to bring in. Simply put, our crew needs the production infrastructure they are used to working with. This means we have to create that infrastructure in Pakistan in addition to making the film.” “Pakistan is not even on the Hollywood film making map; we discovered it because our writer and director Salman Pirzada is from Pakistan, which led us to the Peer Group,” he added.