Sherlock Holmes movies. They're like buses. You wait forever for a decent one to arrive (the last notable effort was 1985's Young Sherlock Holmes), and then suddenly two come along at once. Of course, when it was announced recently that rival Hollywood studios were shepherding competing Holmes movies into the works, the news was greeted as something of a ghastly anomaly.
On the one hand, we have the straight-faced action adventure movie from Guy Ritchie (RocknRolla), a prestige project with Robert Downey Jr in the title role, based upon an upcoming graphic novel by Lionel Wigram. On the other, we have the slapstick wild card, a comedy blockbuster from Judd Apatow (Knocked Up), starring the inimitable Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) as Holmes and Will Ferrell (Anchorman) as Watson. Yet "how could this happen?" came the cry of disbelief. How did it happen? How did something as precious as a creative idea get cloned? Is there nothing sacred in Hollywood anymore?
Typically, this is hardly a new predicament for Tinseltown. A quick glance back to 2005 will remind us of the heady battle that ensued between two duelling Truman Capote biopics. Both movies focused on the period in and around Capote's conception and writing of In Cold Blood. Yet while one film boasted a star-studded cast, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Sandra Bullock and Sigourney Weaver, the other merely had Philip Seymour Hoffman and a squeaky voice. The star-studded version was called Infamous, starred the English stage actor Toby Jones in the lead role, and was seen by many as critically superior to the Hoffman version, simply called Capote. And yet the latter movie opened 11 months before Infamous, and captured all available limelight and Capote-based hysteria. By the time Infamous crashed and burnt at the opening weekend box office, with a paltry $450,000 (Dh1,650,000), Capote had already taken an impressive $42.5 million (Dh156 million) in the US alone.
Before that, the killer asteroid movies Deep Impact and Armageddon had famously faced each other in a summer 1998 box office battle. There had been two cartoon ant movies (Antz and A Bug's Life), two Wyatt Earp movies (Tombstone and Wyatt Earp), two Mars mission movies (Red Planet and Mission to Mars), two volcano movies (Dante's Peak and Volcano), two Christopher Columbus movies (1492: Conquest of Paradise and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery), and even two competing biopics about the American Olympic runner Steve Prefontaine (Without Limits and Prefontaine).
In the midst of all this, in the early Nineties, two apocalyptic virus movies were rushing into production. One was Crisis in the Hot Zone, starring Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, and directed by Ridley Scott. The other was Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman. I met the late great "super-agent" Jay Maloney (who counted Spielberg and Scorsese among his clients) at the time, when his company was representing the Hot Zone team. He was extremely political about the situation, and said that the competition wasn't a problem, that he didn't know where it had started, but that Hollywood was a small community where ideas were common currency.
In the past, of course, rival studios had made similar movies, like gangster flicks such as The Public Enemy and Scarface, or artistic epics such as Lust for Life (Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (Charlton Heston as Michelangelo). But this was different, it was the wholesale cloning of a high concept pitch that was then speedily produced and released by whatever actors, writers and director were willing and available at the time. Maloney finished his rumination with the warning that nothing was over until it was over, and that a movie wasn't completed until it was rolling through the projector of the local multiplex.
As it happened, The Hot Zone was soon overtaken by Outbreak and subsequently stalled and collapsed, leaving the latter Dustin Hoffman movie to storm the box office alone. And yet the lesson to be learnt, which is the case in all competing movie scenarios, is that time is of the essence. Or, to put it bluntly, first out of the gate is the winner.
Brian DePalma's Mission to Mars, for instance, an awful pseudo-spiritual sci-fi farce with nods to Kubrick and aspirations of grandeur, was released in March 2000, trouncing the similar (and equally risible) Red Planet, which starred Val Kilmer and Carrie Anne Moss, and was released 10 months later. Similarly, Peter Weir's innovative reality TV satire, The Truman Show, was released in June 1998, beating Ron Howard's copycat flop Ed TV, which came out nearly a year later. Ditto for competing geological disaster flicks, Dante's Peak (the earlier winner) and Volcano (the later loser).
Despite the smooth words of agents, and the united front portrayed by the industry, this ostensible race to the finish line can produce a cut-throat ethos in the competing filmmaking camps. Most famously, in 1993, the two Wyatt Earp movies went mano-a-mano in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they were in production. Here the money men in Kurt Russell's Tombstone bought up all the vintage costumes in the surrounding area, causing lengthy delays to Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp, as scouts for that movie had to fly to Europe for extra outfits. Unsurprisingly, Costner's movie, second out of the gate, eventually bombed, making only $25 million (Dh 91 million) on a budget of a then whopping $65 million (Dh238 million).
In some cases, like The Hot Zone, the sheer career-numbing fear of bringing up the rear, and facing the possible ignominy of being beaten to the multiplex, will force many a competing movie project simply to back down. The Director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) famously dropped out of his long-gestating Alexander the Great (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) when Oliver Stone revealed that he had raced into production with his own Alexander, starring Colin Farrell. Similarly, Mr Hughes, a thoughtful biopic about Howard Hughes, starring Jim Carrey and directed by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) simply faded from production schedules when it was announced that Martin Scorsese's Hughes biopic, The Aviator, was starting to take shape.
Clearly, on this evidence, entering the duelling movies arena is a high-risk strategy that will most likely involve the complete humiliation of one of the participants, either at the box office itself, or even before that in the form of a withering production collapse. And yet, rather than witnessing a decrease in copycat productions, we seem to be in a golden era right now. Here, as movies become prohibitively expensive to produce and original ideas increasingly scarce, desperate filmmakers are often relying on formula, remakes, sequels, safe-bets and, crucially, each other's ideas, for inspiration. Thus, recently, in what can hardly be described as "pure coincidence", we've had two potholing horror movies (The Cave and The Descent), two comedy penguin movies (Happy Feet and Surf's Up), two 1950s Hollywood noirs (The Black Dahlia and Hollywoodland), and, my personal favourite, two computer-generated rat-in-peril movies (Flushed Away and Ratatouille).
It's hardly surprising, then, that the makers of the two Sherlock Holmes movies seem remarkably unphased by the news that they're involved in a fight to the finish. By now a Tinseltown norm, they merely ignore the competing movie, and focus all intention, instead, on what's great about their own project. Thus Etan Cohen, the writer of the Baron Cohen (no relation) movie, has repeatedly stressed the amount of research that's going into his script, and how this will be comedy adventure supported by a bedrock of authenticity. "Looking at my desk," he told a recent interviewer, "I have books about Victorian forensics, all the stories, and dictionaries for Victorian slang... We're trying to write a giant comedy while at the same time staying true to the mechanics of a Sherlock Holmes story."
Ritchie, alternatively, has promised that his project will offer a "contemporary" take on "an intellectual action hero". "He's an intellectual superhero, and I'm inspired by that," he said recently. His producer Joel Silver (The Matrix), however, was far more blunt, far more money. "It's James Bond in 1891," he said. "It's a big wild action movie!" And still Ritchie, possibly perturbed by all this talk of competing movies, let it be known that there was only going to be one top dog in the Holmes movie race. "They don't even have a script yet," he told the newspaper USA Today, referring to the comedy Holmes production status. "We are way ahead of them!"
And with that one minor but significant broadside comes the very real possibility that Ritchie's movie, first from the blocks, will be top of the box office in 2009, that Robert Downey Jr will be the one saying "Elementary, my dear Watson," and that Sacha Baron Cohen's comedy, though greatly researched, might indeed flounder in the commercial doldrums of second banana status. If, that is, the movie is completed at all.
Getting there
The flights
Flydubai operates up to seven flights a week to Helsinki. Return fares to Helsinki from Dubai start from Dh1,545 in Economy and Dh7,560 in Business Class.
The stay
Golden Crown Igloos in Levi offer stays from Dh1,215 per person per night for a superior igloo; www.leviniglut.net
Panorama Hotel in Levi is conveniently located at the top of Levi fell, a short walk from the gondola. Stays start from Dh292 per night based on two people sharing; www. golevi.fi/en/accommodation/hotel-levi-panorama
Arctic Treehouse Hotel in Rovaniemi offers stays from Dh1,379 per night based on two people sharing; www.arctictreehousehotel.com
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Mountain Classification Tour de France after Stage 8 on Saturday:
- 1. Lilian Calmejane (France / Direct Energie) 11
- 2. Fabio Aru (Italy / Astana) 10
- 3. Daniel Martin (Ireland / Quick-Step) 8
- 4. Robert Gesink (Netherlands / LottoNL) 8
- 5. Warren Barguil (France / Sunweb) 7
- 6. Chris Froome (Britain / Team Sky) 6
- 7. Guillaume Martin (France / Wanty) 6
- 8. Jan Bakelants (Belgium / AG2R) 5
- 9. Serge Pauwels (Belgium / Dimension Data) 5
- 10. Richie Porte (Australia / BMC Racing) 4
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 Group 1 (PA) US$75,000 (Dirt) 1,900m
Winner: Ziyadd, Richard Mullen (jockey), Jean de Roualle (trainer).
7.05pm: Al Rashidiya Group 2 (TB) $250,000 (Turf) 1,800m
Winner: Barney Roy, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
7.40pm: Meydan Cup Listed Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 2,810m
Winner: Secret Advisor, Tadhg O’Shea, Charlie Appleby.
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Plata O Plomo, Carlos Lopez, Susanne Berneklint.
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: Salute The Soldier, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
9.25pm: Al Shindagha Sprint Group 3 (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Gladiator King, Mickael Barzalona, Satish Seemar.
Premier League results
Saturday
Tottenham Hotspur 1 Arsenal 1
Bournemouth 0 Manchester City 1
Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Huddersfield Town 0
Burnley 1 Crystal Palace 3
Manchester United 3 Southampton 2
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Cardiff City 0
West Ham United 2 Newcastle United 0
Sunday
Watford 2 Leicester City 1
Fulham 1 Chelsea 2
Everton 0 Liverpool 0
Profile of Foodics
Founders: Ahmad AlZaini and Mosab AlOthmani
Based: Riyadh
Sector: Software
Employees: 150
Amount raised: $8m through seed and Series A - Series B raise ongoing
Funders: Raed Advanced Investment Co, Al-Riyadh Al Walid Investment Co, 500 Falcons, SWM Investment, AlShoaibah SPV, Faith Capital, Technology Investments Co, Savour Holding, Future Resources, Derayah Custody Co.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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.”
England's Ashes squad
Joe Root (captain), Moeen Ali, Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes.
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
DUBAI WORLD CUP RACE CARD
6.30pm Meydan Classic Trial US$100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.05pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,400m
7.40pm UAE 2000 Guineas Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
8.15pm Dubai Sprint Listed Handicap $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-2 Group Two $450,000 (D) 1,900m
9.25pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,800m
10pm Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,400m
The National selections
6.30pm Well Of Wisdom
7.05pm Summrghand
7.40pm Laser Show
8.15pm Angel Alexander
8.50pm Benbatl
9.25pm Art Du Val
10pm: Beyond Reason
Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush
Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”
A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.
“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
box
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Celta Vigo 2
Castro (45'), Aspas (82')
Barcelona 2
Dembele (36'), Alcacer (64')
Red card: Sergi Roberto (Barcelona)
Step by step
2070km to run
38 days
273,600 calories consumed
28kg of fruit
40kg of vegetables
45 pairs of running shoes
1 yoga matt
1 oxygen chamber
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EPowertrain%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle%20electric%20motor%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E201hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E310Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBattery%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E53kWh%20lithium-ion%20battery%20pack%20(GS%20base%20model)%3B%2070kWh%20battery%20pack%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETouring%20range%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E350km%20(GS)%3B%20480km%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh129%2C900%20(GS)%3B%20Dh149%2C000%20(GF)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Now%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
