Hollywood Movie Star Danny Glover Partners on Arab Action Hero Franchise
Posted on May 14, 2008
Filed Under celebs
DUBAI, UAE, May 14 /PRNewswire/ — UAE-based Colourblind Entertainment
announced today that acclaimed action film star Danny Glover is joining its
Board of Directors and will play an integral role in the future development
of ‘Sharq Warriors’ a videogame franchise featuring ‘Sami’ the first modern
Arab action hero. Colourblind has formed a partnership with Louverture
Films, which was co-founded by Danny Glover and producer/writer Joslyn
Barnes.
“I first heard about this project during a visit to Dubai and could see
the huge potential of developing the ‘Sami’ franchise,” Glover says. “My
production company Louverture is venturing into 3-D animation films as well
as other new media and ‘Sami’ and ‘Sharq Warriors’ are a perfect fit for
us. I am also excited to be involved in creating heroes for other regions
like South Asia and Africa that have been ignored or handled insensitively
by the existing game developers.”
Danny Glover’s career spans more than 30 years in the entertainment
business including the action film franchise that started them all, ‘Lethal
Weapon’. He joins internationally renowned journalist Riz Khan, a show host
at Al Jazeera English and formerly with the BBC and CNN, as part of an
acclaimed international team that is launching the video game. Khan says
the experience that Louverture brings will be invaluable in achieving the
full potential of ‘Sami’ and other franchises being developed by the
company.
“Danny Glover has succeeded in Hollywood, which is the toughest
entertainment market in the world” Khan says, adding, “Louverture Films is
producing movies in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, Latin America, all
markets that we are targeting in line with the philosophy of our name
“Colourblind” that heroes can be of any colour. Many existing games feature
Western soldiers shooting Arabs, Afghans and other ethnic “enemies”, as
well as bad guys who are consistently of African descent, Latino, Arab or
Muslim in general. We think that only reinforces negative stereotypes,”
Khan added. “We’re introducing different types of heroes and ‘Sami’ is the
first of them but he fights corruption, not people of another race in an
adventure packed with action that is sure to deliver an adrenalin rush.”
Colourblind has spent two years developing the ‘Sharq Warriors’ and
will launch the full game across the Middle East and around the world later
this year. This comes as industry analysts are predicting very strong
growth for the sector. According to analyst Daniel Ernst of consulting firm
Hudson Square Research (HSR), from March 2007 to March 2008, global
videogame (software) revenues grew 38%. Global software sales reached
US$26.5 billion, only slightly behind the film industry’s US$26.7 billion.
For the rest of the year he anticipates global software revenues to climb
another 31% to $34.6 billion.
Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in a study of the global entertainment
industries expects videogame sales to continue growing through to 2011. Its
‘Global Entertainment and Media Outlook’ report predicts the worldwide
gaming market will be worth US$48.9 billion by 2011.
Colourblind Entertainment has created Sami and the Sharq Warriors
specifically for video gamers from the Middle East region, looking for a
hero they can directly relate to, in a dynamic story featuring the latest
3-D graphics. Sami uses shooting, driving and parkour (free running) skills
as he navigates tricky desert settings and comes under rapid fire from the
robotic defense systems operated by the Shamal Force. Sami is fighting to
save his homeland - a modern fictional Middle Eastern country and to free
his sister who has been captured by the GEG militia.
The PC (Windows) game will be available soon, as a free download, in
English and Arabic.
SOURCE Colourblind Entertainment
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