EXCLUSIVE: Belgian and Moroccan filmmaking duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are used to breaking records.
Their 2020 blockbuster Bad Boys For Life is the highest grossing film in the franchise, making in excess of $426.5m, while back home in Belgium, 2018 hit Gangsta is one of the most successful local films in the territory since the 1980s.
The pair broke records of a different kind during the shoot of their upcoming Arabic action thriller 7 Dogs in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.
In stunts staged in the desert outside of Riyadh, the production clinched Guinness World records for the “largest film stunt explosion in the history of cinema” and “the most explosives detonated in a single film take”, dethroning previous recordholders No Time To Die (2021) and Spectre (2015).
The detonations overseen by explosives expert Duncan Capp (Batman Begins) and his team at IFX International Special Effects LLC, used 170.7 tonnes of TNT equivalent, for an explosion close in size to the 2020 Beirut blast, and 405.85 kg of TNT equivalent respectively
Preparation meeting for the detonations
Sela, GEA
The movie, with an official budget of $40M, which is rumored to be skirting $70m, is also breaking fresh ground as one of the most ambitious home-grown movies to be shot in Saudi Arabia since the lifting of its cinema ban in 2017.
Egyptian A-listers Karim Abdel Aziz (The Blue Elephant, Kira & El Gin) and Ahmed Ezz (Kira & El Gin, Sons Of Rizk) lead an international cast also featuring Monica Bellucci (The Matrix Reloaded), Salman Khan, Sanjay Dutt (Vaastav: The Reality), Max Huang (Mortal Kombat), Tara Emad (The Blue Elephant 2), and Sandy Bella (Franklin).
Ezz plays plays an Interpol officer opposite Aziz as a member of a clandestine global crime syndicate known as 7 Dogs. The natural enemies are forced to join forces to stop the circulation of a dangerous new drug across the Middle East.
The action thriller is based on an original story by Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA), who is best known internationally as a mover and shaker in the international boxing world, who engineered a new Saudi boxing promotion with the TKO Group earlier this year.
7 Dogs is produced by the film arm of entertainment and hospitality company Sela and sponsored by GEA and Riyadh Season, with post-production by L.A.-based VFX giant Company 3.
Alalshikh executive produces alongside Abdulelah Alqurashi and Adnan A. Kayal, with long-time Guy Richie collaborator Ivan Atkinson (Aladdin, The Gentlemen, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) on board as a producer with support from Cyrus Patel (Tehran, ’83) as a line producer.
Deadline visited the set in the final days of filming in early April at the privately-owned Al Athriya palace, north of Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.
Built in the region’s traditional Najdi style with ochre battlements, the reconstruction features an imposing castle with a courtyard and low-sofa-lined reception rooms, as well as a replica of a traditional village, which has been brought to life in the past for visits by foreign dignitaries.
The ornate interior is dotted with photos of past guests – such as King Charles, prior to his ascension to the UK throne, as well as figures from a bygone geopolitical era including late U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who had strained relations with Saudi Arabia throughout his rule.
Outside in steadily rising temperatures, El Arbi and Fallah are directing separate cast and crew in different parts of the complex.
Behind the scenes with Sandy Bella at the Al Athriya Palace
Sela
El Arbi is working on a car ambush scene with a well-known U.S. actor, whose participation is under wraps for now, while Fallah directs a sequence in which Bellucci and Emad under fire from Bella’s character.
Patel watches the shooting of the former scene, in the shade of one of the castle walls.
The experienced line producer previously worked in Saudi Arabia on Agustí Villaronga’s 2019 historical coming-of-age drama Born A King, about the late Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s diplomatic trip to London in 1919 when he was young boy.
“I’ve been here for seven months, so it’s been a while since I’ve been back to London,” says Patel. “Ivan and I put together the entire team.”
Alongside crew from the UK, U.S., Spain, Belgium and the MENA region, around 25 crew members hail from Saudi Arabia.
“They’re all really young, speak English and are very, very enthusiastic and eager to learn. Some of them have already worked on international films, and they’ve come a long way so quickly. I think the next time we come back for a film we’ll want to get at least 50 to 100 people more and keep growing,” says Patel.
“The industry here is less than seven years old so it’s still in its formative stages, but you feel like it’s a start of a cultural explosion in the country in general, and film is going to be at the forefront,” he adds.
Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” premiere in May 2024 in Riyadh
Getty Images
During a break, Fallah explains how he and El Arbi first connected with Alalshikh when they attended the Saudi premiere of Bad Boys: Ride or Die with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Riyadh in May 2024, with the action picture becoming the country’s highest grossing film of all time.
It was one of the first big Hollywood premieres to take place in the country in the wake of the opening up of the country.
“He talked to us about this project, we thought it sounded cool because it’s in the vein of Bad Boys and the first big movie to shoot here in the Middle East,” says Fallah.
The duo has worked in the MENA region before, partly shooting their 2022 film Rebel in Jordan, but Fallah said they were both attracted to the idea of making a bigger commercial movie wholly set and shot in the Middle East.
“Our origins are Moroccan. It’s in the same world. We always wanted to do something in the region so it’s a dream that came our way and we were like, ‘Okay, this is our chance to do that.”
The directors also brought their longtime cinematographer Robrecht Heyvaert (Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Rebel) on board the project as well as several Jordanian and Palestinian crew members from the Jordan Rebel-shoot for 7 Dogs.
“They really experienced having worked on big films like Aladdin and Dune,” says Fallah.
Other heads of department included production designer Paul Kirby (Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Captain Phillips), costume designers Beatrice Giannini (Hannibal) and Mark Bouman (Wonka, Bridgerton) and Hair & Make-Up Designer Jacqueline Russon (Pearl Harbor, The Little Mermaid).
Fallah also highlights the work of stunt experts 87Eleven, led by the stunt coordinator Stephen Dunlevy, whose credits include Mad Max: Fury Road and John Wick.
“We have this cool end sequence in the desert with vehicles, and we’re like, this is our Mad Max sequence,” he says.
Adil El Arbi takes selfie while shooting a Mumbai scene in Riyadh
Sela
The production has shot all over Riyadh and its surroundings, with the capital city doubling for Mumbai and Shanghai.
Most the interiors were shot at the new Al-Hisn Big Time Studios near Riyadh, a joint venture between German film equipment giant ARRI and Sela, which were completed in record time to accommodate the production ahead of its official launch in October 2025.
The complex spanning 10,500 square meters, features a VP volume with a 15m 360-degree turntable, an overhead rain system, and more than 300 sqm of LED panels; a multi-use studio space spanning 5,000 square meters which can be divided into three studios with movable partitions, an indoor water tank and outdoor pool.
Sets built in the multi-use studio included an upside-down passenger plane fuselage and an ornate Shanghai penthouse built over the indoor water tank, which were both used for high-octane action scenes.
Aziz and Ezz after post-performing an underwater scene Al-Hisn Big Time Studios
Sela
Atkinson first connected with Alalshikh when he worked on the Touching Hands, featuring boxers Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois, Hamzah Sheeraz, Josh Kelly and Liam Smith, for Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.
Richie directed the film in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s BigTime Creative Shop to promote the 2024 Riyadh Season Card Wembley Edition.
“He wanted to make big action film in the tone of the John Wick, Bad Boys, and was looking for somebody to produce it,” recounts Atkinson.
“We took a couple of meetings… and the more we talked about it, the more interesting it became as an idea, so we took it to the next level, and I jumped on a plane to Riyadh to get an idea of what was going on here.”
Atkinson bats back a suggestion that the film is some sort of vanity project for Alalshikh.
“That was a reservation but the more we talked about it, the less it was that. His Excellency would say, “Here’s the idea, here’s the writer who’s going to write it, now put it together. I don’t want to get involved in chasing the day to day.”
Atkinson said there was some to-ing and fro-ing over the screenplay over the course of three months, but ultimately screenwriter Mohamed el-Dabah has a clear vision what he was aiming achieve.
“We have a running joke on the screenplay. I would say, ‘This is how I think this should go.’ And then the pushback was like, ‘No, this is how it should be, because this is how Saudis understand that same sequence,” he recounts.
“We’d get into a discussion, and it would always come down to, ‘Trust me, it’ll be funny in Arabic,” he continues, saying the phrase became a running joke in development. “
“But the truth is, there wasn’t that much to do, just a couple of structural things. Sometimes what happens in a film when you’re doing the beginning of something, any franchise, you try to throw everything at it, but less is often more.”
Tara Emad on set of 7 Dogs
The production will announce its local 2026 release date in the coming days, with the announcement coinciding with the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, showcasing the country’s ambitions to become a major film and TV hub.
Atkinson says it remains to be seen whether the film results in a sequel, but adds this is not the main goal.
“The mission statement for this film is to showcase Saudi Arabia as a place that international filmmakers can make films, real films,” he says.
“What we’re trying to do is make this big international film that can play to multiple regions, even though it’s going to be multi-language at a price point where it makes sense from a business perspective. It’s not about throwing $200 million at an action film that nobody’s going to watch,” he continues.
“The objective is to make a film at a price point that people look at it and go, ‘Okay, that is something we can lean into.”
The producer adds that he is seeing growing international interest in working with Saudi Arabia.
“People’s understanding of Saudi Arabia has definitely opened up over the years… a couple of people who really questioned me on the decision to come here… have since come back saying they have a project that could work in the region.”
Asked on his ambitions for the film, Fallah replies: “We’re just trying to make a great movie that’s memorable, that works for everyone and not only the region.”