It's not been a good few weeks to be a stunt performer. On July 12, Walking Dead stuntman John Bernecker died on set following a 22-foot (6.7-metre) fall onto a concrete floor, while on August 14, stunt driver Joi Harris died following a motorcycle accident on the set of Deadpool 2. In between, Tom Cruise, who is famous for performing many of his own stunts, is reported to have broken his ankle following a failed attempt to jump between two buildings on the London set of the sixth Mission: Impossible. All three shoots are believed to have been closed down while investigations take place.
While every precaution is taken to make on-set stunts as safe as possible, there's no denying that stunt performing is a dangerous job. Among the members of the stunt community to whom I spoke following these two tragic accidents, the sadness felt is mingled with a degree of inevitability.
Bobby Holland Hanton is a seasoned stunt pro who has doubled for Daniel Craig in the James Bond franchise and Chris Hemsworth in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I spoke to him fresh from the Atlanta set of the as-yet-unnamed third Avengers movie (formerly Infinity War 1), where he was again filling in for Hemsworth as Thor.
"We spend a lot of time rehearsing our stuff to keep it safe and eliminate as much danger as possible," he says. "We're one of the departments that starts working on a movie very early and finishes very late – we can be on set for nine months, mostly in preparation on the safety side, but it is a dangerous industry and accidents can happen. Malfunctions of equipment, machinery, things that can be out of the hands of the performer, and no one really knows what's gone wrong until it's been properly investigated."
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Read more:
Double or nothing: Meet Hollywood stuntman Bobby Holland Hanton
At last, a safety net for Bollywood stuntmen
Walking Dead halts production after stuntman dies
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Dubai resident Barry Haggis is a coach at Dubai's Parkour DXB, and has previously worked as a stunt performer on TV shows such as MTV's Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers, and in pop videos for stars including Taylor Swift. "The news isn't a shock, as such, because there are inherent dangers," he asserts. "It's more a case of curiosity about how it happened, because in my experience everything is a controlled risk. It's just the same as [a job] using a crane because usually there are rules put in place [at work] to prevent accidents, so when they do happen it means that somewhere down the line those risks weren't addressed properly."
Holland Hanton concedes that stunt performers are well-rewarded financially for their high-risk jobs, though in a wider context, he notes that compared to a top footballer who could be earning more than Dh1 million a week, who is not putting their life on the line, there is some room for perspective.
However, he feels that, in the absence of the adulation received by the stars for whom they risk their lives, stunt performers could receive greater recognition in other areas: "The Oscars and the Golden Globes don't even recognise us," he says. "The Screen Actors Guild and Emmies do, and we have our own Taurus World Stunt Awards, so why not? I don't know the reason, but if we can be recognised at something as big as the Emmies, then why not the Globes and the Oscars?"
Haggis, on the other hand, seems to almost shy away from public recognition for his work: "We don't get a lot of credit, but that's not why you do it," he insists. "You do it because you love it. If recognition mattered, I think I'd be back to doing it for the wrong reasons, like some of those crazy videos on YouTube looking for attention – that's going to come back and bite you at some point.
"That's why I love being a coach. If you train someone right, they'll do a great job and you'll get no credit at all, but I feel good knowing I've made their life better."
When attention does turn to the stunt community, it's usually because of a tragedy, both men agree.
"It's a shame it's come to people dying for others to actually stand up and say: 'What's happened here, then?'" Holland Hanton says. "We do this for our whole lives, getting smashed about and bumped and bruised, and now because there's a couple of fatalities, people want to know why."
Perhaps the biggest surprise when chatting to Holland Hanton is the fact that, for someone working in such a dangerous job – where a single injury could end his careeror, indeed, his life – he is relatively unsure of where he stands in terms of insurance.
With insurers understandably reticent to hand out affordable personal policies to someone who risks their life for a living, there's an assumption that a movie's producer has the situation covered. He's at pains to point out that when he has been injured, such as a split groin and injured back on the Thor: Ragnarok set, he has been very well looked after – on that occasion, Marvel covered all of his medical costs until he was fully fit. But he admits that should an injury end his career, he's unsure of the situation: "I honestly don't know the ins and outs," he tells me. "You'd like to think you're taken care of, and I know they looked after me when I was injured, I really can't say anything bad about that at all, but if I couldn't work again, I honestly don't know."
It's a situation familiar to Eugene Wee, a production co-ordinator for Dubai's Filmworks, who have handled local production for huge movies including Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and The Bourne Legacy: "I think because stunt performers are usually freelancers, they tend to assume the production house has dealt with [insurance]," he says. "From Filmworks' perspective, we would, from our side. Even if I just had to put a camera in water in full waterproof housing I'd take out extra insurance, but I can only speak for Filmworks.
"We're careful to make sure that whatever could happen is covered, but I honestly couldn't say if that's the case for everyone."
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Meydan racecard:
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 2 (PA) Group 1 | US$75,000 (Dirt) | 2,200 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas (TB) Listed | $250,000 (D) | 1,600m
7.40pm: Meydan Classic Trial (TB) Conditions | $100,000 (Turf) | 1,400m
8.15pm: Al Shindagha Sprint (TB) Group 3 | $200,000 (D) | 1,200m
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (D) | 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) | $175,000 (T) | 2,000m
10pm: Handicap (TB) | $135,000 (T) | 1,600m
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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The specs: 2018 Mazda CX-5
Price, base / as tested: Dh89,000 / Dh130,000
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 188hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 251Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.1L / 100km
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Why your domicile status is important
Your UK residence status is assessed using the statutory residence test. While your residence status – ie where you live - is assessed every year, your domicile status is assessed over your lifetime.
Your domicile of origin generally comes from your parents and if your parents were not married, then it is decided by your father. Your domicile is generally the country your father considered his permanent home when you were born.
UK residents who have their permanent home ("domicile") outside the UK may not have to pay UK tax on foreign income. For example, they do not pay tax on foreign income or gains if they are less than £2,000 in the tax year and do not transfer that gain to a UK bank account.
A UK-domiciled person, however, is liable for UK tax on their worldwide income and gains when they are resident in the UK.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Hili 2: Unesco World Heritage site
The site is part of the Hili archaeological park in Al Ain. Excavations there have proved the existence of the earliest known agricultural communities in modern-day UAE. Some date to the Bronze Age but Hili 2 is an Iron Age site. The Iron Age witnessed the development of the falaj, a network of channels that funnelled water from natural springs in the area. Wells allowed settlements to be established, but falaj meant they could grow and thrive. Unesco, the UN's cultural body, awarded Al Ain's sites - including Hili 2 - world heritage status in 2011. Now the most recent dig at the site has revealed even more about the skilled people that lived and worked there.
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Bugatti Chiron Super Sport - the specs:
Engine: 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16
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Power: 1,600hp
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