Release Date of Saudi Arabia’s $150 Million Desert Warrior: Ben Kingsley as the Persian King
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, the film Desert Warrior will premiere on September 28 at the Zurich Film Festival after several years in the making. Saudi Arabia financed this $150 million epic, starring Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, and Ben Kingsley.
Rupert Wyatt, known for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, directed this high-budget production. Originally, Desert Warrior, which was filmed in 2021, was set with a $70 million budget, but behind-the-scenes disputes and production issues doubled the cost.
Deadline revealed in October last year that Wyatt was stepping away due to disagreements over the film’s tone and runtime, while test screenings received negative responses. The report stated that Hollywood studios were reluctant to make this pre-Islamic Middle Eastern tale with Western actors. Wyatt eventually exited the project in April 2023, and editor Kelley Dixon, known for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, was brought in to re-edit, add dialogue, and alter Wyatt’s cuts.
Desert Warrior follows an Arab princess named Hind, played by Hart, who refuses to marry Emperor Khosrow. She escapes into the desert and enlists the help of a mysterious thief, played by Mackie, to rally the tribes against Khosrow Parviz’s massive army. In some versions of the “Khosrow legend,” this emperor is portrayed as a rival to the Prophet of Islam near Mecca, while in others he is depicted as a Persian king defeated in Egypt.
There had previously been rumors that Vishka Asayesh would play the wife of Khosrow Parviz, but she denied the collaboration on Instagram. The film’s climactic battle has been compared to the siege of the Pelennor Fields in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King—a bold claim indeed.
