Trailer for ‘Miral’ with Alexander Siddig, Frieda Pinto

The trailer for Miral has been released, and it features a lot of Sid as the father of the titular character. The new film from Julian Schnabel stars Frieda Pinto as a young woman who lives in an orphanage setup in Jerusalem by Hind Husseini in the wake of the 1948 partition of Palestine. Her father (Sid) is still alive, but wants Miral to get an education, so places her in the orphanage. When she becomes embroiled in dangerous political activities as a teenager, their relationship becomes tense. Hiam Abbass, Willem Dafoe, and Vanessa Redgrave also star.

Miral will debut at the Venice Film Festival in September with a rumored U.S. release set for December 3, 2010.

Sid Reteams with Cairo Time Director

We’ve confirmed that Alexander Siddig has reteamed with his Cairo Time director, Ruba Nadda, for her next film. The title has not yet been released, but Ruba reveals that it is a “fast-paced thriller” and Sid is in every scene. They plan to begin filming later this year, and we’ve been promised more details when they are available.

Additionally, watch for announcements of Cairo Time at US film festivals and a theatrical release date of sometime in June/July.

‘Clash of the Titans’ Bumped Back to April, Coming in 3D

Warner Bros. has announced that Clash of the Titans, in which Sid plays Hermes, has been bumped back a week to release on April 2 in the U.S. The move is to allow for the film to be converted to 3D. If you haven’t seen the preview yet, check it out on the film’s official site. (Note that the preview still has the March 26 release date; the site itself has been updated with the April 2 date.)

First Look: Posters for ‘Clash of the Titans’

FirstShowing.net has several posters from Clash of the Titans posted on their site. None featuring Sid, but wow, they look good! Looks like cheese wasn’t on the menu for this remake.

MTV To Show First ‘Clash of the Titans’ Footage

MTV will air exclusive, first-look footage of Clash of the Titans on Friday, September 4th at 7pm ET/PT. Sid plays Hermes in the film, due out in March 2010. A remake of the 1981 movie, Clash of the Titans focuses on Perseus (Sam Worthington), the mortal hero made to carry out a series of quests by the gods in order to… win the hand of the imprisoned princess Andromeda (Alexa Davalos).

Cairo Time to Premiere at TIFF

More entries in the Toronto International Film Festival were announced today, and, as expected, Cairo Time will premiere at TIFF in September. Cairo Time is a Canadian film, although it is set in Egypt, and will be featured in the Canada First! category. TIFF runs September 10-19, 2009; screening schedules have not yet been announced. For more information, visit their website.

Sid Books Roles in “Titans”, “Miral”

We’re pleased to announce Sid’s latest projects, an epic mythological adventure and an independent film set in Isreal.

We can confirm that Sid will appear as Hermes in the new version of Clash of Titans, co-starring Liam Neeson (who also appeared in Kingdom of Heaven) as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes (who co-starred with Sid in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia) as Hades. A reimaging of the 1981 film, the story follows the myth of Perseus and his quest to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster in order to save the Princess Andromeda. Clash of the Titans also stars Sam Worthington as Perseus, Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, and Gemma Arterton as Io. Filming is scheduled to begin this summer for a 2010 release.

Sid also confirms that the film Miral is “set” and he will be playing the role of Jamal. Miral, a film by Julian Schnabel and based on the book by Rula Jebreal, is a chronicle of Hind Husseini’s effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel. Miral is scheduled to begin filming shortly for an anticipated 2010 release.

It looks like 2009 could be a record busy year for Sid, between filming these movies and his role on Waking the Dead, plus promoting Cairo Time, now set for release on November 1 in the U.S.

‘Merlin’ Coming to NBC in June

NBC has announced their summer lineup with Merlin set to debut on Sunday, June 21 at 8/7c. NBC will air two episodes back-to-back on June 21 and June 28, then the show will settle into its regular one-episode schedule beginning July 5 for the remainder of its 13 episodes. Sid appears in episode 11, so watch for him in mid-August.

‘The Boundary’ to Premiere on HBO Zone

The Boundary, a short film Sid filmed in 2007, will premiere on HBO Zone on February 5 at 9/8c, followed by several additional airings over the next month. See the full list at HBO.

“The Boundary” Producer Interviewed

altmuslim interviewed Muslim comedian Azhar Usman about, among other things, his role as producer for “The Boundary”:

You’re now branching out a little bit from comedy into filmmaking, and there is a trailer on the Net for your film called “The Boundary”. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

At the moment, “The Boundary” is a short film, and our intent, inshallah, is to turn it into something larger – either a feature film or a TV series. It is a story about an Arab-American Muslim family that is returning from Canada back to the United States. They get stopped while driving across the border, and what ensues is a captivating family drama. It’s not a heavy-handed political film, although by nature it has political themes; rather it explores those themes through a very poetic family story.

The main driving force behind the film is a producer named Julius Onah, who is a friend of ours. My partner on this project is Matt Sumbuli, a friend whom I created a production company with called 9 Saints, named after the nine Sufi saints of Indonesia. It’s meant to create projects with themes that Muslims and other disenfranchised groups could find their own voices in. Julius himself is a Nigerian-born immigrant who isn’t Muslim, but is very familiar with Muslim culture and Islam, and is a phenomenally talented filmmaker. There’s another project I was involved with before called “Tinku’s World“, which is a sketch comedy that Julius had been involved with, so we had a good working relationship.

Julius came to us, knowing that we had started a production company, and pitched an early iteration of “The Boundary”. We, of course, loved it. Our belief has always been if we don’t tell our own stories in our own words, from our own perspective, then they won’t be told or other people will try to tell them. This has always been a problem – Hollywood whitewashing the stories of minority peoples. We took it on, raised the funds necessary to produce the short film, made it with the highest quality 35mm film and Dolby digital sound. The actors are all Hollywood actors – the lead is Alexander Siddig, who many people recognize from Syriana and 24 and Star Trek. Opposite him is Christopher Mann, who has been a regular on “The Wire” on HBO. The wife is played by Jacqueline Antamarian, who is also a former “Sopranos” actress.

It’s making the rounds on the festival circuit, and was selected as a finalist by the HBO Short Film Competition, which is pretty exciting because HBO is interested in licensing it to be shown in February. The response has been really positive, not only from viewers but by people in the industry. We’re hoping, inshallah, that it can open up doors to a larger feature project or a TV series that explores the same themes.

Read the full interview here.

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