ABC's new TV drama Pan Am, about the lives and loves of airline staff, debuts in the UAE this week. Frazier Moore reports
Handily adjacent to the Steiner Studios lot in Brooklyn sits a cavernous storage shed now used for housing a key component of ABC's new series Pan Am: the jet plane.
The cast and crew refer to the space as not a stage or a studio, but "the hangar".
The life-size mock-up of a jet plane's passenger compartment is not going anywhere without wings or a tail, however. The "fuselage" set of the show's proud Boeing 707 is mounted on a platform 1.5 metres off the concrete floor It has been designed in period-perfect detail that harks back to the early 1960s - the dawning era of commercial jet flight when the luxury airline Pan American World Airways flourished and when Pan Am takes place.
On a recent shooting day, two dozen "passengers" - male extras crisp in their business suits, which is how men clad themselves for air travel in those days - queued to enter.
Also ready to board are the real stars of the show: the stewardesses, played by Christina Ricci, Kelli Garner, Karine Vanasse and Margot Robbie.
With its debut on OSN this week, UAE audiences got their first real look at the globe-spanning melodrama set during the Kennedy presidency, with all its romance, glamour and excitement for a new, ascendant age. There is also a bit of the cloak-and-dagger, as one of the stewardesses has been recruited by the government to be a spy.
"I had an image for the first episode of the show," says Thomas Schlamme, an executive producer who also directed the premiere. "The stewardesses' high heels clicking on the tarmac, with a little girl watching from the gate with admiration."
Schlamme says he knew the series would be received with misgivings that it was somehow sexist. As expected, Pan Am has been criticised for perpetuating pre-feminist stereotypes. "I want to turn the stereotype on its head," Schlamme says. "These stewardesses were really a fascinating group of people."
Garner stars as Kate, the adventurous spy-initiate.
"I feel like these are extremely modern women of their time," she says. "Although they might have had to be beautiful and serve men coffee, what they got from this opportunity was also beautiful and empowering." The castalso includes Mike Vogel and Michael Mosley, who, as the airliner's dashing pilot and co-pilot, hold forth in the cockpit.
While the programme is frequently compared to Mad Men, Pan Am is not a men's world.
"The voice of the show is very much that of the women," says Ricci, who plays the independent-minded Maggie. "You can't do a show about this period without involving the actual sexism that existed at that time. But the show doesn't glorify the sexism or revel in it."
That being the case, she says she's savouring her role - or, more accurately, her role-within-a-role.
"I get to play a character who goes to work and plays a different character when she gets there: 'Can I get you another drink, sir?' That's really fun for me."
The programme gets a lot of help from CGI: much of the multilevel Worldgate terminal, and even the 707's sleek exterior, are virtual, as is the sprawling tarmac, all of which are shot with green screen.
It fell to the costume designer Ane Crabtree to reproduce the stewardesses' uniforms (among the wide range of period clothing), with the challenge of reviving the signature "Pan Am blue" twill two decades after the airline stopped flying.
The blue was inspired by the ocean and the sky, mirrored in the Pan Am globe logo and in the world Pan Am served, she explains.
In the Pam Am premiere, the pretty Kate pops up on the cover of Life magazine for a story headlined "Welcome to the Jet Age".
Recalling the photo session for the dummy cover in midtown Manhattan, Robbie says she felt that not only had she stepped half a century into the past, but had transported a bit of the city along with her.
"While I was posing, I saw this elderly gentleman who looked like he was from the sixties, too, in his overcoat and brown hat," she says. "He did a double take...smiled and said, 'Ahhh, that takes me back'."
Pan Am is broadcast on Sundays on OSN. Check local listings for times.
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
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.
PRISCILLA
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
MATCH INFO
Europa League final
Who: Marseille v Atletico Madrid
Where: Parc OL, Lyon, France
When: Wednesday, 10.45pm kick off (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
MATCH INFO
Sheffield United 2 Bournemouth 1
United: Sharp (45 2'), Lundstram (84')
Bournemouth: C Wilson (13')
Man of the Match: Jack O’Connell (Sheffield United)
