There was disappointing news today for Egypt's economy, as the Ministry of Tourism announced the cancellation of a highly anticipated promotion for 2011. On Friday, April 1, the Tourism Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour announced that the "Hollywood Classics" reenactment series will be on hold for 2011 due to "political reasons."
The much ballyhooed reproduction of "Jaws 2," scheduled for late summer 2011, has been officially cancelled. While the recent social upheavals were cited by the Minister as the main cause, there is speculation that the cancellation is also related to the mixed reviews of Egypt's real-life reproduction of the 1975 Steven Spielberg classic "Jaws" in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. The promotion became controversial when South Sinai governor and erstwhile Roy Scheider impersonator Mohammed Abdel Fadil Shousha went off-script and blamed Israel for releasing the shark, a costly ad-lib that caused him to be thrown off the project.
While the real-life reenactments have run into some trouble, Minister Abdel Nour remains confident that they can help revive Egypt's critical tourism sector after recent political turmoil. "We still saw increases in revenue and a reduction in Russians from our presentation of 'Jaws'," said Abdel Nour. "We are hopeful our recreation of Hollywood classics in real time here in Egypt can promote increased tourism to other areas as well." When asked if "Jaws 3" might be on the table for 2012, Abdel Nour responded, "We anticipate a shift in focus to some other regions for next year's season," adding, "that movie sucked anyway."
Sources close to the Ministry of Tourism have recently informed al-Jawaala that next year's probable recreation will be another Spielberg adventure, "Raiders of the Lost Ark." There is still some disagreement over who will fill the role of pop-culture icon Indiana Jones, but History-Channel-darling and de rigeur archaeologist Zahi Hawass is an early frontrunner. Others speculate that "The Ten Commandments" will be recreated, in an effort to boost tourism in the Sinai among evangelical Christians, with the ubiquitous Egyptian screen actor Adil Imam slated to play Moses. However, Minister Abdel Nour threw cold water on this rumor by saying that cooperation with Israel on the project would be impossible, "until they give us our shark back."
Love it!
ReplyDelete