Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah are happy that the public their new film_Rebel_ can see. That is not obvious: Warner Bros. brought their greatproduction batgirl never out. The Belgian directors suffered “a minortrauma”, they say in conversation with NU.nl.
By Esther Villerius
“We wrote world history, in a weird way,” Fallah says of that painfulannouncement last summer.
The filmmakers broke through in Hollywood in 2020 with their action film BadBoys for Life , starring Will Smith. And more beautiful things were coming,because they were allowed batgirl directing. The blow was big when they weretold that batgirl was suddenly deleted. “We couldn’t believe it.” Therecordings were already well underway.
Canceling batgirl was a unique event in Hollywood. Never before has such agreat film been shelved so suddenly. The reason? “Money,” says the directorduo. The new management of Warner Bros. wanted to cut costs, because theystill had a debt of three billion euros.
batgirl needed more financial investment to make enough money. Or the filmhad to be written off so that a significant amount could be reclaimed. WarnerBros. chose the latter.
Rebel gaat over radicalisering los van religie
- Rebel opent met een liquidatiefilmpje van Islamitische Staat. Naar dit filmpje kijkt de dertienjarige Nassim (gespeeld door Amir El Arbi, het broertje van regisseur Adil). In de video is Kamal (Aboubakr Bensaihi), de grote broer van Nassim, een van de beulen. * De broers komen uit de Belgische wijk Molenbeek. Deze wijk staat bekend als broeiplaats voor islamitisch extremisme. Maar de film gaat niet over de islam. Het verhaal stelt vooral de radicalisering centraal. Want hoe is Kamal, die in eerste instantie met goede intenties besloot oorlogsslachtoffers in Syrië te helpen, in hemelsnaam in die video beland?
No self-doubt, but ‘a minor trauma’
The 34-year-old El Arbi and the 36-year-old Fallah have never doubted that_Rebel_ would come true. But they do experience the release more strongly.Fallah: “How lucky are we with the release of Rebel?”
So the directors are not completely unscathed from the batgirl dramaarrived. The whole event resulted in “a minor trauma”. El Arbi: “It was a verypainful experience. We are now more careful and strict.”
The duo is therefore less likely to take on new projects, but not because theydoubt their qualities as filmmakers. because batgirl according to them, wasfar from finished: the film already failed during the editing of the firstversion. “For comparison: Bad Boys had eleven versions. So it couldn’t evenbe about our qualities,” explains Fallah.
Bilall Fallah (left) and Adil El Arbi (right) on the set of Rebel.
Major Hollywood directors also got involved in the discussion
Their self-confidence has not been dented. Was the cancellation perhaps due tothe production companies? El Arbi and Fallah don’t think so. They shrug. “Youalso have to earn money back, that’s the studio system. We just keep makingHollywood productions.”
According to the duo, it seems that Hollywood blames itself for something. Bignames voiced their concerns. Filmmakers Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead )and James Gunn ( The Suicide Squad )sent statementsof support to El Arbi and Fallah. And the directors’ union in America startedtalking about the incident.
El Arbi: “It was actually a huge shock for every director. A verbal agreementfor the release of a film must at least come now.” For now, nothing is onpaper.
If God wants it
But anything is possible, they know that now. “We therefore often say’inshallah’ (God willing, ed.). Shall we make a film? Inshallah. Will the filmbe shown? Inshallah.”
“The word is really starting to make sense for us. And it’s being called outmore in Hollywood, too, when it comes to the release date, for example.”Laughing: “You have to say ‘inshallah’, we say.”
El Arbi and Fallah have one hard requirement these days if they are going tomake a new film. Loud: “May the film be seen! We put a lot of effort into ourwork, then it must be shown to the public, please.” There is with Rebel met.The film premiered on Monday and can be seen in Dutch cinemas since this week.”Inshallah.”
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