$10m dream to show Dubai on giant screen

Dubai is no stranger to the big screen - but rarely one as big as this. The manager of a local cinema is seeking US$10 million funding to make a 3D film about the emirate, shot in the giant Imax format.

Dubai is no stranger to the big screen - but rarely one as big as this.

The manager of a local cinema is seeking US$10 million (Dh36.7m) funding to make a 3D film about the emirate, shot in the giant Imax format.

Imax film is twice as wide as that used in ordinary cameras, and so can be projected onto especially large screens.

Lengthy sections of the Batman blockbuster The Dark Knight Rises were made using the format, as were parts of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which was partly shot in Dubai.

Goulam Raza Amarsy, the chief executive of the Meydan Imax Theatre, said he is looking for funding for what would be the first entire film about Dubai to be shot in Imax.

"No one has done an Imax film on Dubai - we're proposing it, and we're proposing it in 3D," he said.

The movie would centre on Dubai and help to promote the emirate internationally, but would not be "in-your-face tourism propaganda", said Mr Amarsy.

"The idea is to create a proper 40-minute film, properly funded with the right actors and music," he said.

"Until we have financing, this is a pie in the sky," he added. "We will be talking to sponsors and investors within the next couple of months. We'll be talking to the different government entities and corporations."

The script includes a scene of taking off from the Burj Al Arab helipad. "You'll have that sense of being there, of taking off from the Burj in a helicopter," said Mr Amarsy.

Mr Amarsy's daughter, Fereshteh, has already produced an eight-minute Imax film about Dubai.

"The plan is to expand this short film, this vignette of about eight minutes, to a full-fledged Imax film, which is approximately 40 minutes," said Ms Amarsy. "There's some Imax footage in Mission Impossible, but no [entire] film on Dubai".

The Meydan cinema is one of just two Imax screens in the UAE. However, Canada's Imax Corporation says it is in talks with cinema operators to boost the number of screens in the Middle East.